Whirlwind
by Nina Ridgmont
Summary: A vegetarian vampire joins the Dunder-Mifflin team but complications arise when she finds her blood singer among her coworkers.
1. Chapter 1

Whirlwind

If your

girl's kisses

make you

feel

weak in

the knees

she may be

a vampire

- Richard Brautigan

**"This is my first office job," Danica says, the overvoice speaking as an unusually attractive girl, her head wrapped under a scarf, crosses the parking lot of the complex. She jogs in the shadow of the building to the entrance, dodging the rays of sunlight. "Last year, while I was finishing up my college degree, I worked as a stocker at a grocery store. Before I had cafeteria jobs at the University of Alaska."**

** She stares wide-eyed at the camera in the filming room. She is no longer wearing the scarf. Her eyes are a startling caramel color. The hue blends well with her features, but at the same time, her eyes draw an odd emphasis to her. Though by no means are her eyes her only peculiarity: her voice has a musical lilt to it and her dark olive skin reveals a polished porcelain undertone. **

** "I didn't know about the cameras," Danica admits. **

Danica Simovic was hired as a customer service rep for Dunder Mifflin. She was twenty-four, (though in the viewers' opinions, she could easily pass for a teenager.) She had just moved from Alaska, a fact that her boss Michael Scott dwelled on, to distract himself from her intimidating beauty. "What do you call snow there?" he asked, from behind his slack, ogling face.

"Snow."

"So you speak English there?"

"Most of us," Danica said patiently.

"Listen - if you need help finding your way around Scranton," Michael offered, "I can probably find all your anenomes you need. Moose meat, penguin meat: you'd be surprised how many ethnic food places there are around here."

"I've got Sitka deer meat stocked in my icebox," Dwight Schrute boasted, foisting his presence in Michael's office.

"I'm doing fine, thanks." Danica managed to conceal her amusement.

After several more minutes of Dwight quizzing her on the wildlife in Alaska, Danica ventured to the annex. Her phone and laptop computer had already been placed on her desk, but not hooked up. Danica sidled to the floor to examine the jack.

"Are you the new girl?" chirped a girl.

Danica twisted around to look at the speaker. She saw a dark-skinned girl with a bright pink dress and turquoise cardigan.

"Yes," Danica answered.

The girl grinned. She had big, luminously white teeth. "Ohmigod, we're going to be like best friends. I'm Kelly. Kelly Kapoor. Do you like entertainment magazines?"

"Sure." Danica was not quite sure she knew what Kelly meant by entertainment magazines.

"George Clooney is so hot, isn't he?" Kelly perched on her chair, allowing Danica room to back out from under her desk. "Who's your favorite?"

"Johnny Depp."

"Ohmigod, Johnny Depp is so awesome!"

Kelly chattered on energetically about nearly every celebrity who was popular that year. When she paused for a fraction of a second, Danica leapt in.

"Kelly, do you know when tech will set up my phone?"

"In a few days," Kelly said dismissively. "You can look on my computer until then."

She swiveled to the screen and clicked on her Yahoo page. An alert popped up on the corner of her screen but Kelly merely closed it.

"What was that?"

"Just some storm warning." Kelly immediately switched the screen to a more interesting topic.

Danica remained a captive audience for Kelly until lunchtime, with the other customer service rep filling her in on more than she ever wanted to know about TomKat and Brangelina. On the way to the breakroom she passed by the windows. The sky glowed a faint green around uneven patches of clouds.

Danica sat next to Kelly at the table in the breakroom.

"What's that you're drinking?" Kelly asked.

"Water and cranberry juice."

"Are you dieting? I tried the cranberry juice diet once, but I only lost four pounds in one week. Though I never tried it with water."

Danica sipped her "cranberry juice." It was, she had found, a good way to stave off her thirst during the day. She did add water, so the liquid would not look or smell so much like blood. Kelly, meanwhile, nibbled on her dried fruit. She cast an envious eye on Danica's slim figure and vowed to give the cranberry juice diet another chance.

A man walked in. He was about Kelly's age, with raven black hair and blue-gray eyes. He glanced over at the table, then turned to the refrigerator without a word.

Danica became aware of the warm, spicy scent that wafted her way. The scent was unmistakably human, which she could usually ignore with ease, but there was something else. Something stronger. It filled the room as if it had solid volume, slamming into her lungs like a sledgehammer.

The raven-haired man closed the refrigerator, but the smell persisted, tempting her beyond any that she could imagine. She closed her hand over her nose and mouth, leaning her elbows against the table so that her pose appeared less odd. When the man looked over towards her and Kelly, she darted her eyes away from him.

Kelly had suddenly become inexplicably silent. Had she noticed that Danica was trembling like an addict? Danica peered to her side, but the other girl's attention too was riveted on the man.

The man rotated towards them, as polite behavior dictated, though his grimace showed his discomfort. "Uh, did I interrupt something?"

Danica glanced towards Kelly. Kelly's mouth hung open; she was openly gaping at him.

Danica managed to shake her head.

The man shuffled out of the breakroom, careful not to turn his back to the two females.

Then Kelly's chatter pealed out.

"Ohmigod, Ryan is sooo cute."

"I guess." At least one part of the puzzle had been solved. Kelly had a crush on this Ryan and was too shy to speak to him. Danica gulped down more of her cranberry water and wiped aggressively at her mouth, but she could not taste the weak animal blood. That scent filled her mouth.

"Someday, I'm going to get him to ask me out. I've just got to make myself gorgeous and then Ryan will come up to me on his knees and beg to take me out. And I'll play coy at first, because guys don't like girls who are desperate. I'll pretend I have a date with someone else and I'll pretend that it's like this hard choice but eventually I'll sigh and choose him over this other guy who is sooo hot . . ."

"What other guy?" Danica lost the thread of Kelly's plan.

"You know," Kelly stressed. "The guy who's his competition. All girls have one, because guys like a challenge. So I'll have this other guy waiting to sweep me away, so Ryan will have to prove that he's worthier than the other guy . . ."

"The guy that doesn't exist?" Danica asked. Fortunately, she was too bewildered to laugh hysterically or snort in disgust.

"It's just a hint. You know, to add an air of mystery. Haven't you ever had a boyfriend?" Kelly asked.

Danica lowered her hands under the table. "No."

"We should so set you up with someone," Kelly said. "There are tons of eligible guys here."


	2. Chapter 2

Ryan hurried over to the file drawer. Michael had once again put him on gofer detail.

This one at least was not as degrading as some of the previous errands. This file at least related to Dunder-Mifflin's business, unlike his countless runs for coffee or donuts or Egg McMuffins. His temp agency had not warned him that Dunder-Mifflin needed a waiter.

Of course he should be pleased he had been able to hold on to a job in this economy. It would be good experience for him. That was how he explained his "choice" to work at a paper company to his plainly disappointed parents. When his father was his age, as his father had smugly reminded him, he had traveled to five continents and had been published internationally. Lately the only thing that pleased the old man was to criticize Ryan's poor "choices."

He opened the drawer to the payroll files, and a cat jumped out and streaked through the office. Phyllis Lapin had taken that second to open the door: she was coming in from a sales call. The cat darted around her legs and disappeared.

"Matty Matilda!" Angela Martin wailed. Then she vented her fury at Ryan. "Go after her."

"You keep a cat in your file drawer?" Ryan articulated the obvious, because how was he supposed to guess that a cat would pounce out at him? Oh right, because he worked at Dunder-Mifflin. Nothing about the way this place was run ever made sense.

"And you let her out." Angela clutched her talon-like fingers on his arm and yanked him up. "Go get her. She could get hurt and it'll be all your fault."

At the same time, a TV emergency signal blared from a computer. Jim Halpert, who must have had some news site up on his screen, nearly spilled from his chair. At the same time, Dwight leapt up and began barking instructions.

Angela shoved Ryan to the door. "If you don't get my cat out of that storm, I will make your life a torturous, miserable, rotten one," she threatened hoarsely, her elfin face transforming into a grotesque mask.

Ryan was tempted to say it already was, but he withheld his retort, less fate determine to prove him wrong once again.

"Fine," he exhaled as he strode to the door.

"Hurry," Angela urged.

Ryan descended the stairwell. The wind hammered at the wall. The storm that the news predicted was turning brutal. The lights blinked, but shone on.

Once on the ground floor, Ryan scanned the shadowed space. "Matty Matilda?" he called out softly. He felt utterly ridiculous voicing that name. Would the cat answer to just Matilda? Probably not.

The exit door stood wide open. Of course. Whatever made his task harder.

Ryan edged to the open door. The wind slammed against him. The rain had not started yet, at least, though black clouds hovered low over the complex. Ryan discovered there was someone else in the parking lot, crouching over the cat and stroking her fur.

Danica turned when she heard him approach.

"Hey," Ryan said, softly as if he might spook her. "There's a storm warning. We'd better get inside."

Danica nodded. She was exquisitely beautiful. Ryan found it hard to draw away his stare. She seemed to glimmer. That, Ryan told himself, was an optical trick of the storm.

She hoisted Matty Matilda into her arms. Matty Matilda growled. She scraped her claws against her arms and took off.

"Sorry," Danica said hurriedly, flustered so that some of her native accent seeped in. She could have caught the cat as she was leaping away, but she did not dare try, fearing she might accidentally crush her.

"I think the weather's got her spooked," Ryan reasoned. "Animals are supposed to be sensitive to these things."

The wind whipped his words in spiraling patterns but Danica must have heard.

Ryan looked over at the gate to the parking lot. Which was open. "You'd better get inside," he told Danica. Then, with Angela's nasty threat looming over him, he started off after that damn cat.

A strong gust slammed at him, feeling as solid as a brick wall. Ryan fell against the chain link fence. Dirt flew into his face. He narrowed his eyes against the wind, and tried to orient himself as to his location. He could not tell how far he had gotten from the car park.

A hand landed on his back. Danica had not returned to the safety of the Dunder Mifflin building, and now it was too late. Ryan looped her arm through his and pressed her against the ground. The fence thrashed beside them, echoing a _chank, chank, chank_ as the wind roared over them. Instinctively the two employees flattened to sidewalk.

The wind swept hard, scraping at their backs. Ryan tried not to picture the storm tossing them up like a spatula. More dirt migrated towards his face, some of it still damp from melted snow. Danica's hair flew in his mouth.

Several minutes later, the pressure let up and Ryan felt he could breathe without risking his flying up in the sky. Danica was entirely still: she gave no ripple of breath. Slowly, she moved her legs, then rose to a kneel.

Ryan stood. His legs shook, though he did his best to disguise his unsteady balance. He rubbed at his jaw. The taste of dirt and Danica's hair mingled on his tongue, a weird mixture of bitter flavors.

Panic had yet to surge up. Maybe he was in shock. He could not seem to express anything. All he could think about was Danica close to him as the wind battered away.

Danica glanced around at the sky. Her first concern was whether she was discovered. Her survival instincts at the forefront while emotions retreated. The storm was at the same time familiar and new.

She realized Ryan was watching her and lifted her arm to make a wild swipe of her hair. She concentrated on breathing in and out, as if she had faced a brush with death and it frightened her.

At last Ryan spoke. "Let me see your arm."

"What?" Danica did not fake her lack of comprehension.

He tried again. "Did the cat claw you?"

"She didn't break the skin." Danica held up her hand, so Ryan could see she bore no dripping wound.

Ryan reached out his hand, almost brushing his thumb against her palm. Danica pulled away before he could sense the absence of her pulse.

"Your hair," Ryan said, still measured as if in deep concentration. "It looks awful."

Danica pressed her lips together, forming a smile. Then she started laughing.

Ryan laughed. Suddenly the weird spell that seemed cast over him broke. He felt normal.

"Yours too," Danica replied. Ryan's hands flew up to his head. He had to admit he was a bit vain. That made Danica laugh harder. Ryan pantomimed caresses against his head, just to make Danica laugh. She had a beautiful laugh.

An insistent meow interrupted them. Matty Matilda had escaped harm. Now she trotted back to the gate, as if she and Ryan were best buds. Ryan picked up the cat and they headed inside.

"Thank god you're OK," Angela greeted them. Ryan was heartened by her concern, however belated, until Angela scooped Matty Matilda into her arms and cooed her consolations to her feline.

"You're welcome," Ryan said, but Angela ignored his hint.

**"At 2:21 PM, an F2 tornado touched down on Center Street. " Dwight informs the camera crew. "This is the first tornado I have witnessed in Lackawanna County since the one that picked up outhouse on Shrute Farms and placed it gently onto an exterminator's van. Cousin Hilda Schrute was unaware of what had transpired until she found she was straddling a giant metal cockroach, and the elders shunned her, just in case she liked it."**

** Ryan, still dirty and unkempt, swipes at his hair again (to no effect.) It takes him a minute to summon his voice.**

** "I almost died today because of Angela's stupid cat." He does not sound angry, but instead somewhat detached. "But Toby is letting Danica and me leave early today and there have been other things that were . . ." He trailed off. **

** The camera crew inserts a clip of Danica gathering her purse. She and Ryan nearly bump into each other before they board the elevator.**

** Ryan becomes aware that he is still being filmed. He hastily finishes.**

** "I'd say it was an average day."**


	3. Chapter 3

"So are you going to tell me the whole story or not?" Kelly demanded the moment she spotted Danica at her desk. Danica had arrived early. Before sunrise, in fact. That was her plan: to get to the building before the sun caught her. She would loiter in the emergency stairwell until a reasonable time when she would pretend to arrive. Reverse for leaving. It was relatively easy now, with winter's reduced daylight hours.

"The whole story," Danica echoed.

"When you nearly got blown away by a tornado. It's not like you come so close to a brush with death every day."

There was a time when Danica did have brushes of death on a daily basis, but that did not merit any correction. "There isn't anything to tell, really," she said. "I was outside on break and Ryan was searching for Angela's cat. When the tornado came, we got down on the ground."

"But what did it feel like?" Kelly persisted. "Did you have an out of body experience or anything?"

"No. I just closed my eyes and concentrated on staying on the ground."

"If you're going to milk this, you've got to come up with a better story than that," Kelly advised.

"Hey," Michael intruded in the annex. He started weaving his arms, extending forward so his upper body was parallel to the ground. "Help! Help! It's a twister. Watch out for the cow!"

"That was exactly like that," Danica said in a deadpan voice, throwing a glance towards Kelly. Kelly giggled at Danica's lame attempt at "milking it"; though part of the humor was knowing that Michael would buy it anyway.

Then Toby arrived at his desk. "Oh no! The Wicked Witchman of the West." He tooted "Di-din di-din di-din din, Di-din di-din di-din din."

"Michael, it's really not appropriate to do that," Toby droned.

"All I hear is windy windbag windbag," Michael said. "No wonder we're plagued with tornados around here."

"He does this all the time," Kelly told Danica, rather unnecessarily.

Toby peered over the cubicle wall. "Danica, you know that regarding your unusual experience yesterday, if you find you have any lingering anxieties, you may come to talk to me about it. That's part of my job."

"Thanks," Danica said. "But it's not necessary."

"OK," Toby said, sounding downcast. "The offer remains open."

"Thank you."

The official day had not yet begun, so Danica ambled into the break room. Kevin Malone, an accountant, rose his bald head when he saw her enter.

"Hey, Tornado Girl," Kevin quipped, folding into a squinty grin. "Is it windy?"

Danica shrugged, not sure how she should decipher that joke. Maybe it was the language barrier. Or maybe Kevin was just bad at jokes.

"There was a lot of wind yesterday." A high-pitched giggle emanated from Kevin's throat.

Ryan entered the break room just in time to hear that. Kevin greeted him, "Hey Ryan, did you make wind?" That high pitched giggle.

"Funny, Kevin," Ryan said dismissively.

"See you later, Tornado Girl," Kevin said after he made his selection from the vending machine, giggling that squeaky giggle. Poor Danica, Ryan sympathized. Not even two days here and she's branded with a nickname.

He stepped towards Danica, who was fumbling with a cup at the water cooler. "So I guess you got home safely," he said.

"Yes," Danica observed. "As did you."

"Yup. Didn't run into any more tornadoes." Lame joke. Not as lame as Kevin's, though.

"Good," she said, "I hear that dust can damage the eyes."

"Would have been worse in summer, I guess," Ryan said. "I take it you were dust free."

"Nothing a shower couldn't take care of," Danica said carelessly, before the implication of her words occurred to her. Lucky that she couldn't blush.

An image of Danica in the shower shuttered into Ryan's mind. He quickly changed the subject.

"So has your computer come in yet?"

"They said today." Danica glanced at the clock. It was almost time for the work day to start. "I'd better get to the annex."

"Right," Ryan said, with a casual peek at his watch. "Excuse me." He brushed past her and strode out to the main office.


	4. Chapter 4

Kelly supervised Danica as she answered calls on the phone. Because of the tornado, customer complaints poured in. The missed afternoon seemed to create a huge backlog in shipment schedules. Each time Danica apologetically explained the reason for the delay and assured the customers that the delivery staff was working on getting the shipments out as soon as they could. (A couple of customers were not appeased; they did not see why a little wind would prevent the drivers from getting to their business, but Danica remained the model of politeness.)

That afternoon, the IT technician came to install her phone service (after a false alarm from Michael about the office being invaded by terrorists; Kelly told her that this was the third time this year Michael panicked about the IT guy.) The computer started up without a glitch. Danica set up a couple of basic settings on her desktop, then went the lounge for a belated break.

Six other employees were in the room. Danica fielded more questions about her cranberry juice. It was not like she had time for a sit-down lunch today anyway. She guzzled down her special water and headed back to the annex. She thought of little else but work until five o' clock.

.

More of the same the next day. Danica concentrated on work and Kelly concentrated on work and her elaborate fantasy of how she and Ryan were perfect together. Kelly morphed the tale of the tornado into Ryan's heroic rescue of Danica. "He's like Tobey Maguire," she declared. She plotted some scheme where Ryan would be forced to rescue her.

** Ryan answers the cameraman, "No, I haven't asked Kelly out. Usually I would've just gone out and done it, but it might be too direct for Kelly, since she's so shy." **

At break, Danica asked Jim Halpert about Kelly and Ryan. "What's going on with them?"

"Nothing." Jim, usually not inclined to intrude in other people's relationships, but as Danica was already aware of Kelly's feelings for Ryan, he added, "Kelly likes him, but she hasn't made a move yet."

"Oh," Danica said evenly. She had posed the question as nothing more than a curiosity brought on by Kelly's endless chatter of Ryan. She recognized she had something people would mistake as infatuation. She told herself it didn't mean anything. Sometimes other people wishing to pair up all the single people in the world created those feelings. The camera crew, for example, probably wanted to set up another big office romance to boost ratings.

Ryan visited later in the day to check out Danica's new gadgets.

"So you got an iBook," he said, as he fiddled with the mouse.

"Yes," Danica answered. "Same as Kelly's"

Behind them, Kelly punched in a few keys at her computer. The monitor made an insistent bleep.

"I can't seem to open the WordPad," she moaned as if to herself.

Ryan pounced up. "Is it OK if I look?" Kelly nodded demurely.

It was a simple troubleshooting problem, and Ryan got the program running in minutes.

"Thank you so much," Kelly said.

"No problem," Ryan returned her flirtatious grin.

The Volturi visited that night. It was not much of a surprise; Danica could smell them as she climbed to her second floor apartment. She could hear them swish around at superspeed, upturning her belongings for incriminating evidence. On entering her darkened apartment, she could see their glowing red eyes before she switched on her lights.

Jane and Alec looked her over while Danica removed her coat and hung it on the wall hook.

"Settled into your new human home, I see," Jane said crisply.

"I am, thank you," Danica replied politely, revealing only that she was not intimidated by their appearance. Playing hostess for the first time since arriving in Pennsylvania, she offered, "Would you like something to drink? I have some cow blood in the fridge."

"Cow blood?" Alec echoed. "You do not hunt?"

"I do," Danica said, leveling her eyes to his. "But I keep a supply here." She had scouted the area and learned much of the wilderness bordered Shrute Farms. Even barring that complication, she preferred to not have to rely on the whims of the wildlife population.

Jane set her lips together in disgust. "We didn't come here for your cold cow blood."

"It wouldn't be cold." Danica started to drift towards the kitchen area. "I could heat it-"

"Enough." Jane flashed out a pain wave. Danica keeled forward, crashing to the carpet on her knees with her hands cupped over her face. This way she was able to suppress her anguished scream.

Jane let up after a second. She waited until Danica rose back to a stand before she continued.

"Aro was informed of an interesting television program. Apparently a certain vampire has decided to risk exposing her own kind to millions of humans."

"I haven't." An aftershock of Jane's power resided still in Danica's nerves. She propped herself against her sofa. "I haven't. And I'm not going to expose anything."

"It is only a matter of time," Jane informed her. "With cameras following you all day."

"But they're not following just me," Danica argued. "And certainly not all day. This isn't The Truman Show."

Pushing back an uneasy sensation, Danica repeated her point. "I haven't broken any law. There is no law forbidding us from appearing on TV. My coworkers and the viewers have no reason to believe I'm anything other than human."

"There are logistical issues," Alec said. "You cannot pretend to be human for very long. The humans will wonder why you don't appear in sunlight. Why you don't eat food."

"I can eat food," Danica said. "And they see me during daylight hours, under the bright office lights. To the humans, it's the same thing. I've planned my entrances and exits carefully."

"It doesn't matter how careful you are. Eventually you will slip up," Jane said. "I am not going to stand idly by and let you endanger us."

But Jane did nothing. She had not killed Danica or captured her. Aro had ordered that she and Alec were only to warn Danica of the folly of continuing at Dunder Mifflin. Jane did not approve of Aro's leniency, but she had to obey his orders.

Danica repeated, "I haven't broken any law."

Jane huffed. She turned and receded into the darkened hallway. Alec glanced back at Danica, his red eyes flashing with a curious gleam, before he followed his sister out.


	5. Chapter 5

Danica listened to the Michael's boss, Jan Levenson, and the other women talk about their futures. Despite that it was the twenty first century, the talk drifted back to husbands and kids.

Husbands and kids. Apparently Danica, and possibly Angela, were the only women in the office who did not set out for families.

The sun had already set when the employees left. Danica exited the same time as Kelly and Ryan. Her two coworkers stood around awkwardly until Kelly blushingly said goodbye and dashed off to her car. Then it was just her and Ryan standing and watching everyone else depart. Jim looked longingly as Pam climbed into Roy's car, and Jan rebuffed another of Michael's declarations of love.

She was aware of the romances in the office: Jim and Pam, Pam and Roy, Michael and Jan, Dwight and Angela, Kelly and Ryan. More pairing up and hooking up and setting up with a mate. It was as if everyone had a pathological aversion of seeing an adult alone.

"Do you want to go for coffee?" Ryan asked suddenly. Then again, there was no harm in a little social interaction.

"That'd be great."

As they walked down the street, Danica caught a flash of Jane's black cloak. Spying on her.

Jane was no longer in sight when Danica and Ryan arrived at Peet's. Danica scanned over the menu, while Ryan ordered. She had never tasted real coffee as a human, but once she had had coffee ice cream when she was a kid. So she ordered an iced mocha.

"An iced drink in February," Ryan observed, the corners of his mouth curled slightly.

"It's not that cold," she said. The warm spell that had brought on the tornado had persisted.

"Right. Cause you're from Alaska." Ryan lowered his brow in thought. "Does it really get that cold or is that just cartoons?"

"It gets that cold," Danica stated. Not that she experienced the cold for herself. She could, however, read thermometers. "And in the summer we get mosquitos."

"Sounds epic," Ryan said. "Have you been kayaking or anything?"

Danica shook her head. "I didn't live by the ocean. I was up by Fairbanks."

"Still it must be great to live in a place that has all that scenery and wilderness."

"There's lots of wilderness here," Danica pointed out.

"It's not the same," Ryan said, with a hint of wistfulness.

A barista brought their drinks. Danica scooped out the whipped cream. (It was so long since she had had whipped cream. Not since the war . . .) She was surprised about how tart and dry it tasted. Her tongue had different requirements now, but she could not tell if it was her vampirism or the war that had changed them.

Ryan was staring. Danica licked off the rest of the whipped cream, then sipped her cup like a normal human. "So how long have you lived in Scranton?" she asked.

Ryan brought his cup to his mouth. "Years," he mumbled.

"Do you like it?"

He took a long sip. Then, after deliberating how to put his dislike for this city without appearing too whiny or provincial, he said, "There's not much to do here."

Danica gazed out the window. Across the street were a couple of shops and a gym. Scranton also had movie theaters, traditional theaters, libraries, concerts and other venues.

"I'd like to travel more, you know," Ryan said. "Go to Europe. There's so much to see. I don't know if you feel the same thing in Alaska. Alaska is so big. But Scranton is for people who want to stay in one place."

Danica nodded. "Where do you plan to go?"

"New York. Or LA." Ryan rushed to explain, "Don't get me wrong, I have been to New York before, and some other places. Florida and Washington, D. C. I haven't really experienced those places though. I want to get in touch with what the people who live there do, not just see a bunch of museums."

"It is hard to experience a place in just a week or two," Danica murmured.

"Exactly."

Danica took another practiced sip of her mocha. Hadn't she once had that same excitement for her life? Her afterlife was not much to speak of. She existed safely (except at the current moment Jane and the rest of the Volturi wanted her head) and comfortably. Her only goal in moving to Scranton was that it was away from any vampires she knew. That was what she had wanted.

She envied Ryan Howard.

She asked about business school. Ryan charted out his plans to get an MBA and run his own company someday. After about ten minutes of rhapsodizing about his plans, he said, "Sorry, I got kind of carried away."

"No. It sounds great. You have so much enthusiasm. Business school must be interesting."

"What about you?" Ryan turned the topic to her. "What motivated you to customer services?"

"I don't know," Danica said. She tried to formulate a noble career path. "I want to help people."

"With paper?" Ryan blurted out.

"Yeah," Danica laughed, to ease the tension. "The truth is, I'm not sure what I want to do. My plans haven't gone as I hoped."

Ryan took a final sip of his coffee. "I guess everybody hits a roadblock or two when they start out. After college, especially. Everybody thinks they'll come out and land their big ticket job and they'll be set for life."

"It does sound kind of foolish," Danica observed.

"It's human nature," Ryan said. "We can only look ahead so far. I mean, I don't have all the answers yet. I don't know what business I want to make. I'd considered publishing, but the market isn't looking so good for it. So you could say, I have no idea what the hell I'm going to do."

"There's time to decide," Danica said encouragingly.

He smiled, almost believing that his future was not completely shot. "Plenty of time."

The alley by Danica's apartment building was bleakly lit, which was why Ryan insisted on walking Danica to the door.

"Well, here we are in an alley again," Danica said.

Ryan turned to her, and she pivoted, following his guiding hand like they were waltzing. His lips brushed softly against hers at first, then pressed harder. Danica did everything she could not to crush his soft mouth to her granite one, but her control was ebbing away. She broke away before the hunger flooded her eyes.

"We shouldn't- It's not a good idea." The kiss had reduced her to stuttering.

Ryan's eyes drooped. "Oh. I thought-"

Danica struggled to explain. "It's just the timing is not good. I can't be in a couple."

They stood awkwardly, the alley light buzzing over them.

Ryan finally spoke. "I understand."

He sounded strangely like he meant it, though he couldn't possibly understand. Not all the ways she was different from him.

"Hey, we're still friends, okay." Ryan opened his arms, as if he were about to reach out, then thought the better of it and pulled it back.

Danica nodded. "Yes."

She started to the entrance.

"I'll see you at work," Ryan called.

"See you at work." she echoed, then closed the door.


	6. Chapter 6

The atmosphere at the office should have been weird between Danica and Ryan, but it was not. Anyway, they were not able to talk much the next several day; there were two many distractions.

Meanwhile Kelly involved herself and Danica in helping to plan Pam Beesly's wedding. Kelly was more into it than Pam was, and it was obvious to everyone but Pam, and Jim (okay, and Roy) why that was.

Once back at the annex alone with Kelly, Danica commented that Pam did not seem too excited about it.

"She's probably nervous," Kelly reasoned. "Pam's that way. You know. Quiet. Serious. She's been like that since she found out Jim had a thing for her."

"Really?" Though Danica was well aware of Jim being in love with Pam, she was surprised he struck up the nerve to tell her.

"Yeah. And if you ask me," Kelly lowered her voice conspiratorially, "I don't think his crush was all that long ago. I think he still wants her."

Danica grimaced. "That sucks."

"Totally. But I guess Pam's not in love with him back. Otherwise she would dump Roy and go with him, right?" Kelly did not wait for agreement. "Besides Roy is totally hot too. And he is so in love with her."

Then Kelly said, as if this had to do with the rest of the conversation, "I wonder when Ryan will ask me out."

Danica's phone rang then. She took the call, relieved for the interruption.

Over the weekend, Kelly dragged Danica to the Steam Town mall to shop for dresses for the wedding. Though it was months away, Kelly insisted on getting there while all the good stuff was available.

Kelly selected a white dress and a mauve one, and then thrust the mauve one at Danica. Then she piled on more dresses for them both to try on. Kelly's were all white.

"You must really like white," Danica said dully.

"I look good in white."

Apparently Danica did not, because none of the dresses Kelly chose for her had white. Danica sifted through the dresses, making her own considerations. Pam's wedding was in June. Though they had not selected a site yet, chances were that at least part would be outside. If Danica chose a strapless dress, she could wear a gauzy cardigan over it. That and stockings would mute the sparkling on everything but her hands, neck and face. A hat, maybe, for the head. If Pam's wedding was casual, she could get away with a wide brimmed straw hat, but that would not work with gauze or stockings.

"Kelly, you can't wear white at a wedding," a younger girl resembling Kelly piped up.

Two other girls popped out from behind a rack. The youngest girl reached for a dress in Kelly's pile.

"Hey, don't touch that," Kelly said. "You weren't invited anyway, so why don't you just wait at the game store until we're done."

"You'll take forever," the middle sister whined.

"Well, can't you just look around quietly? Danica and I have important things to do."

"It's not so important," the oldest pointed out. "It's not your wedding."

Kelly slapped the youngest girl's hand away from her dresses again and turned apologetically to Danica. "Sorry about this. My parents made me bring my sisters along. They were supposed to wait in the game store."

"I'm Laura," the oldest one said. "This is Lily and Tammi."

"I'm Danica," Danica introduced herself.

"You talk weird," Tammi said.

"Speak for yourself, Tammi," Laura giggled.

"You both talk like junkies," Lily informed them.

"Will you guys just shut up for a minute and stop acting like retards?" Kelly said. They were getting an audience. "Danica, you can go first."

Danica nodded her thanks and shut herself in the dressing room. She dressed with human speed, then emerged.

"You need something lighter," Laura said. "You're kinda pale."

"Nobody asked you," Kelly spat at her.

"It's okay," Danica said. "It's not a secret that I'm pale."

Kelly sized her up. "Well, in that case, you do need something lighter."

"I just said that," Laura said witheringly.

"We all heard," Lily told her. "You and your big mouth."

"I wanna try one on," Tammi cried.

Danica came home, her ears ringing from the four bickering voices that had surrounded her all day. She set down her bag of successful purchases, none of which had been approved unanimously by the Kapoor sisters.

The microwave light glowed when she entered the darkened apartment. Without even switching on the lamp in the living room, she could make out Alec's outline at the counter. He held a glass half full of cow's blood to his lips.

Danica crossed her arms in front of her.

"I was curious," Alec spoke measuredly, "as to whether it tasted as bad as I thought it would."

She remained still, watching him. She was determined not to show how much this situation amused her.

"And it does," Alec finished.

Danica let the corners of her mouth rise up slightly.

"I take it Jane's not here," she said. Because there was no way Alec would chance sampling the vegetarian diet if she were.

"She had other business to attend to," Alec explained.

"Oh." Danica tried to remember if she had ever seen the siblings apart. Every time Jane went out on one of her errands, Alec accompanied her. As for Alec, he never seemed to run any errands without Jane.

"It should not take more than one of us to . . . see to you."

The defensiveness that ordinarily came with an audience of the Volturi resurfaced. "No, it shouldn't," she agreed stiffly.

She stepped over and proffered her hand. "I'll take that," she said, referring to the glass. Alec handed it to her and she drank the rest of the contents. She was thirsty anyway, so better to not let the blood go to waste.

"Do you not mind the taste?" Alec asked, filling in a pressing silence.

"No." Danica edged to the sink. Away from him. "I've never been particular about food."

"You've missed out on many pleasures in your life." Alec acknowledged.

Danica rinsed out the glass. Finally she said, "Have you become a mind reader, too?"

"If I recall correctly, you detest mind readers."

"I don't. And there's no need to worry about my pleasures. I've just been out indulging in one of those life's pleasures." Alec's eyebrows twitched up. She clarified, "Shopping."

Did Jane ever shop? In her one visit to the Volturi, Danica had not been privy to their inner daily life. The Volturi, contrarily, seemed to live a monastic life. They did their duties: hunting, tracking, ruling. Even their feeding was comparatively Spartan; they might eat humans, but in moderate amounts and in the solitude of their palazzo. No open air hunts for them, unless they were on assignment.

Alec eyed the bags with possible alarm. "I will depart. Enjoy the spoils of your . . . shopping." Danica nodded, thinking she figured out the reason he never talked much. He did not have much experience with small talk.

He was gone in a second.

Danica unrolled the turquoise dress she decided to buy, though she might not wear it to the wedding. She held it in front, remembering the curves it added to her legs and waist. The fabric was appalling flimsy; she probably would not get more than one or two wears out of it. Her thoughts strayed to whether Ryan would like it.

Not that it mattered if he did not. The dress was for her. She would wear it at Pam's wedding and maybe some other event (but not a date.) Men did not like women who were deathly pale, and who freaked out over a mere kiss, anyway.


	7. Chapter 7

Monday morning announced itself with a powdery snowfall. The snow started well before dawn, as Danica left for work. She cut her car through the silent streets, feeling as if she were driving through a snow globe.

She parked in her usual spot, a couple of blocks away from the Dunder Mifflin car lot. The snow collected, forming into a frothy layer over the ground. A lone trail of footsteps marked Danica's path to the emergency stairs, but they soon would disappear. She lingered outside, to prolong the peaceful moment. When sunlight approached, and Dwight arrived, she was sorry to end her vigil.

She planned her entrance for the office much earlier than usual. Michael came in, greeting her with a long song and dance routine to Ricky Martin. "A little bit of Dan-i-ca in my mind."

By chance, Danica was in the main office when Kelly entered with Ryan, or at least they entered at the same time. Ryan said, "It should be fun," while Kelly beamed dreamily at him.

Ryan spotted Danica and his face went slack. He excused himself to Kelly, who was too ecstatic to notice his hasty departure, and approached Danica.

"Hey," he said. "Since we're getting some snow, some business school buddies and I are planning on getting to Blue Mountain for some skiing and snow tubing. You been there yet?"

Danica murmured no.

"You should come. I already invited Kelly." He threw his arm back to the entrance, where Kelly remained, staring starry eyed into nothing.

"Maybe," Danica hesitated. Weather was her biggest concern, but Ryan mistook her reluctance for relationship weirdness. And she let him. "I'll check. Can I get back to you in a day or two?"

"Sure."

**"Snow tubing," Ryan says wryly, "is the second biggest extreme sport in the area. The biggest extreme sport is trying not to die from boredom."**

Danica retreated to her office. A minute later, Kelly floated in.

"Ohmigod, Danica!" A squeal burst out as Kelly dashed forward, bouncing up and down as she clasped Danica's hands. "He asked me to Blue Mountain. I knew he would. This is the best day of my life!"

Kelly did not acknowledge that Danica was also invited, or that Ryan's business school friends would be there. "Just imagine. Ryan and me sitting cozy in the lodge, sharing hot chocolate. Oh, Danica it will be so romantic."

Danica was spared from more of Kelly's talk about her "date" when Michael cut in, insisting that they get to the meeting room with everyone else.

"Right, Movie Monday." Kelly finally snapped out of her daydream. "I'd better get my notebook."

.

The office sat through the last section of _The Wedding Singer_, (with Jim fidgeting through Adam Sandler's grand declaration of love). Finally the movie ended and the employees dispersed to catch up on their work.

After Danica and Kelly finished returning the calls they missed, Danica wandered to the main office. Ryan was at Creed's computer, trying to extract a disc that was wedged in the drive.

A fetid smell hit her when she neared Creed's desk. Knowing that Ryan's desk joined Creed's, she asked, "Do you have to smell this all the time?"

"Pretty much." Ryan finally worked out the disc. It appeared Creed had tried to jam a Zip disc into a floppy drive. _In twenty years or so, I might be making mistakes like that_, Danica thought, though her vegetarian brethren had managed to keep up-to-date with technology.

Danica identified the offending drawer and opened it. Round mung beans were spread out on a paper towel in the drawer.

"Good guess," Ryan complimented. "At this point, the smell kind of permeates the entire desk."

"Has he heard of Ziploc bags?" Danica said.

"Probably not."

Danica slammed the drawer shut.

"Kelly's really excited about the Blue Mountain trip," she said. She had not come here to talk about the weekend plans, but it made more sense than commenting on rotting food in desk drawers.

"Have you decided to come?" Ryan lifted his head.

"Not yet," Danica thought fast. "My cousins are planning on stopping by."

That lie retained a grain of truth. She was sure Jane or Alec would visit her between now and the next week.

"Oh," Ryan said. "That's unfortunate timing."

"It is," Danica said, realizing she regretted declining his invitation more than she could have imagined. "But it cannot be helped."


	8. Chapter 8

Between the sledding date and the plans for Pam's wedding, Kelly's mood was bolstered to a constant high. She plowed through her preparations manically, often dragging Danica or Pam with as consultants. Kelly never learned that Ryan had invited Danica to Blue Mountain, or if she had, she never mentioned it.

One evening after work, they visited Walgreens so Kelly could find sunscreen.

"What SPF do you use when you go sledding or skiing or whatever you do in Alaska?"

"Sixty," Danica fibbed, leaning towards a more cautious guess.

Kelly did not question it. She picked up two different brands and held them up for Danica to look over.

"Not sure."

"Hmmm." Kelly opened one bottle and sniffed it, then did the other. "This has less of an odor," she said decisively.

"That matters?"

"Of course. Ryan won't want a date that smells like sunscreen."

That was fairly rational coming from Kelly. "I suppose not," Danica agreed.

Kelly purchased the sunscreen then the two young women marched through the snow to Kelly's car.

A whiff alerted Danica that someone familiar was nearby. She turned and spotted Ryan down the street, entering a bar with a group of people

"That's Ryan," she commented half-consciously, surprised that she picked up his scent from a block away in a downtown area.

"At Poor Richard's?" Kelly said. She tossed her bag in the back seat then closed the door without getting in the car. "Let's go."

"He's with friends," Danica pointed out, clinging to her caution.

"So? They're probably going to Blue Mountain, too. I can introduce myself." Without waiting for Danica's assent, Kelly took off toward the bar.

Danica sighed and followed.

By the time she caught up (because she resisted vampire speed), Kelly had already approached Ryan's table. "Ryan," she called, as if it were the greatest coincidence ever, her running into him.

"Hey Kelly. Danica," Ryan greeted.

He introduced them to his friends: Hank, Leslie, Greg, and Mira. The friends seemed welcoming of the two additions to their group, except Mira. Mira sulked while the others talked and drank their beers. (Danica permitted herself one beer, which she did not finish. It appeared she would be driving Kelly home.)

At one point, Ryan disappeared from the group. At one point, Kelly disappeared from the group. Danica had not connected the two until she and Leslie headed to the bathroom. (Mira sulkily refused to join them.) Leslie had already swung into the bathroom and Danica was about to enter when she glimpsed them out of the corner of her eye. Ryan and Kelly had tucked into a private corner of the bar, their hungry lips locked together in a kiss.

**Danica addresses the camera in her stoic manner. "No, it doesn't bother me that Kelly and Ryan got together. They might make a good couple." **

** The camera crew follows up with another question. "Sure, Kelly can be high strung, but these things often balance each other out. I know this couple who are complete opposites: she's very outgoing and he's reserved, and they've been together for years. So you never know."**


	9. Chapter 9

Jim ran up to when she entered the office. "Hey, Danica," Jim said. "You have plans tonight?"

"It depends," Danica replied.

"I'm throwing a singles party at my party tonight." Jim handed her a flier with black and white graphics. "Come by if you get a chance."

"Thanks," Danica said. Jim strode by her to distribute fliers to Oscar and Kevin.

Ryan was already at his desk. "What's that?" he asked Danica as she passed by.

Danica ignored the strange pang in her unbeating heart. "Jim's throwing a Valentine's Day singles party." Then, as if to prove she did not care about him and Kelly, she said lightly, "But I guess you have plans with Kelly instead tonight."

"Tonight?"

"Yeah," Danica retracked. "I mean, traditionally, guys and girls do things together on Valentine's Day."

"Wait a minute!" Ryan jumped to his feet. "You mean Valentine's Day is today?"

"Yeah. The fourteenth of February. Valentine's Day."

Ryan scrambled for his PDA. A quick check on his calendar revealed the date was, indeed, February 14th.

He started to slump down his chair, but Kelly pounced on him from behind.

"Ryan!" she announced. "Guess what today is!"

"Valentine's Day," he replied dejectedly.

"You remembered!" Kelly bounced up and down. "Tonight is going to be soooooo awesome!" He tried to catch Danica's eye. Rather than rescue him, Danica stepped back, excused herself, and strode to the annex.

**Ryan rakes his hands through his hair. **

** "I hooked up with her on February the thirteenth," he rasps in disbelief.**

Kelly spouted scenario after scenario of romantic evenings she and Ryan could have now that they were together. Fortunately, Danica was not required to answer to Kelly's relentless list. She merely hummed encouragingly at the right intervals.

Before long, Kelly began talking about marriage and family and babies, prompting Danica to speak up, "That's a long way away."

"I know," Kelly grinned.

"I mean, maybe you should concentrate on the nearer future. You know, going out and having fun."

"Babies have to be planned ahead of time," Kelly admonished.

"Not this soon," Danica tried to explain. "You only had one date."

"Geez, relax, Danica." Kelly eyed her, more confused than suspicious. "Of course I know we only had one date. But what's the point if you don't think about the future?"

Danica paused, trying to ratchet down her defenses a few degrees. "I guess the point is to get to know Ryan as a person," she emended.

Kelly chortled. "I already know Ryan. He's been working here for a year and a half. I think you've been reading too many of those dating magazines."

_And you hadn't even talked to him until this week_, Danica thought, but did not say. That would only start a fight.

_I tried_, she justified wearily. She could not force Kelly to tone down her heavy romance. It should not matter to her how Kelly acts with Ryan, anyway.

In the afternoon, Kelly skipped off to her break. A half hour later, she slinked back to her desk and plopped heavily into her chair.

When Danica finished a call, Kelly sighed, "I guess I'm going to Jim's party after all."

"What happened?" Danica asked.

"Ryan has plans." Tears spilled from Kelly's eyes. "He'd rather hang out with his friends than go dancing with me."

Danica searched for a tissue.

"Toby -" she had started to ask but a Kleenex box had already appeared over the partition wall. Danica pulled out a couple of tissues and handed them to Kelly.

"So he said he was going out with his friends?" Danica asked, doing her best to sound appalled. It did not require much acting. A ghoulish part of her wanted to find Ryan at fault.

"H-h-he said he already made plans to go out tonight and he couldn't cancel," Kelly sobbed. "Like he doesn't see his friends every day, when it's not Valentine's Day."

"Did you tell him that?"

"No." Kelly's eyes cleared as she uttered her indignant denial. "I didn't want him to think I was clingy."

Toby coughed from the other side of the partition.

"But it's Valentine's Day." Kelly's throat rumbled another sob.

"Kelly, listen," Danica began gently, "don't worry about that part. Valentine's Day is just a day."

"You're just saying that because you never had a boyfriend," Kelly sniffed.

Danica had heard enough of Kelly's unconscious barbs at coworkers to know Kelly did not always realize how insulting could be.

"Maybe this is better. That you and Ryan are apart today," Danica persisted. "I mean you just got together. You don't want it to fizzle out like other Valentine's Day relationships, right?"

"Right." Kelly sounded more optimistic.

"So we have a good time at Jim's party tonight, and then you and Ryan can have a meaningful date some other day."

Kelly nodded eagerly. "That's right. Ryan and I are destined for each other. Missing one day doesn't matter."

Danica had succeeded in cheering Kelly up, but she could not help feeling that her pep talk had backfired. She swallowed that feeling.

None of her business, she reminded herself.

"What time do you want to go to the party?" she asked instead.


	10. Chapter 10

Even though Kelly did not expect Ryan to appear (or so she said), Kelly took over an hour choosing what to wear to Jim's party. Every item of clothing was draped across a piece of furniture or was wadded on the floor. Laura and Danica sat on Laura's bed, waiting Kelly out with a quick card game.

Danica had not dressed up much; she had stopped at her apartment long enough to change from her work clothes to a nice berry-colored sweater and jeans. She had not bothered to put on any more makeup than she usually wore. Kelly had tsk-tsked when she showed up at the Kapoors after sundown, but Laura assured her she looked great.

"So why isn't she going with Ryan," Laura asked pointedly, not for the first time.

"Because we decided not to," Kelly answered clippedly.

"But it's Valentine's Day."

"God, Laura, don't be so shallow." Kelly emerged from the closet and regarded her younger sister, her hands mangling a dress. "Ryan and I are mature enough to handle being apart for one night."

Laura only giggled.

"Is she serious?" she whispered when Kelly bent down to rummage through her shoes.

"Of course."

"Was it their decision?"

"Sure." Danica did not want to feed Laura any discouraging ammunition. She really did not know, anyway; she had not been there when Ryan broke Kelly's expectations of a romantic night out. He could have been regretful and embarrassed that he forgot the significant date and that he was unable to weasel his way out of his prior commitment. Or he could have been overwhelmed by Kelly's intensity and was attempting to slow down the relationship to a saner pace.

It was not her business.

Ten minutes later, Kelly finally approved of one of her ensembles. She applied her makeup and brushed her hair; that took another half hour. She was not the least bit concerned about showing up late. "I told Dad that the party started at 7:30," she had confided to Danica, even though it was at seven. "There's nothing more pathetic than showing up on time at a singles' party."

The fact that she only delayed her entrance a half hour implied that she was secretly hoping that Ryan would ditch his friends and surprise her at Jim's.

Finally, Kelly smeared a lip gloss to her lips, blotted and tossed the used tissue on top of a pile of clothes. "OK, lets go."

"Wait a minute, " Laura ordered. "While Dani and I finish up the game, you could at least clean up a little."

"Now?" Kelly whined. "Why should I?"

"Because it's your mess."

Kelly picked up the piles from the floor, stomped over to the closet and threw everything inside. By the time Laura picked up the winning card, the floor was almost clear.

Kelly dashed to the mirror. "Look at what you did," she accused Laura. "My mascara's all runny.

Even with her supervampire sight, Danica did not see any streaks. "It looks fine," she told her but Kelly insisted on taking another few minutes to redo it.

"Laura is such a clean freak," Kelly muttered when they climbed downstairs.

Kelly's parents were downstairs. Mrs. Kapoor stopped them before they got to the door. "Where is this party?" she asked.

"At my coworker's," Kelly answered, her eyes roaming to the clock. "I've been there before."

"The unmarried one?" Mr. Kapoor asked from behind his news magazine. As if being married absolved people of all evil intentions.

"Most everyone at Dunder Mifflin is unmarried." Kelly said, her impatience coming through. "I've been to Jim's house before. Lots of other people are going to be there."

Mr. Kapoor looked at Danica. "Is this the kind of party your parents would approve of?" he asked.

"I think they would," Danica said. She could not say for sure without knowing who else was going, but she trusted Jim.

"Do you tell your parents when you go out with strangers?" Mrs. Kapoor wanted to know.

"My parents died when I was fifteen," Danica said straightforwardly. Fortunately, the Kapoors were not inclined to fawning pity, though Mrs. Kapoor did hesitate before posing the next question.

"A car accident?"

"A house fire." That was fairly accurate; she would never be able to tell humans the whole truth.

"Can we go now?" Kelly groaned, clearly embarrassed by her parents' interrogation.

Mr. Kapoor steered his attention back to his daughter. "There's no reason you should stay out late?"

"I guess not," Kelly said. "Eleven or midnight."

"Why not ten?"

"Dad!" She was really straining her patience at this point.

"Very well. Eleven."

"Thank you." She skipped over to her father's chair and kissed him on the cheek. She gave her mother a kiss on the way out.

The evening was not a success by any means.

Danica hung back and chatted with Jim, who also was not inclined to pair up with any of the guests. Jim was an excellent conversationalist and he did not ask intrusive questions like many of her other coworkers. Danica might have enjoyed herself if Kelly had not constantly interrupted them with her newly surfacing doubts about Ryan.

"Do you think Ryan is seeing other girls? Ohmigod, do you think he's on a date with another girl? Do you think he canceled with me so he could go out with another girl? If he's seeing another girl, I'll kill myself!"

The ordeal left Danica extremely exhausted. (Never mind that her kind never got exhausted).

Kelly glommed onto Ryan all the next morning. All those doubts that had occupied her had vanished. When Michael summoned everyone for a diversity meeting, Kelly sat on Ryan's lap. Then she dragged him up to the annex on the pretext of some computer malfunction.

While he examined Kelly's hard drive, he said to Danica, "I heard you and Jim were getting friendly."

"Huh?" Danica jerked back her headset. Before she could work out a reasonable answer, Kelly leapt in with her affirmation.

"It's true. They were totally joined at the hip."

A vicious clank sounded as Ryan's grip tightened on the screwdriver. He set the hard drive on the floor. He stared into it so intently an outside observer might have thought it hypnotized him.

Kelly rambled on, "You and Jim would be a great couple. You have so much in common."

She would have added more, but Danica cut in. "He's not interested. Neither am I."

"That's because he hasn't gotten over Pam yet," Kelly said, waving dismissively. "But he will. You're much prettier and skinnier than Pam."

"So you were serious," Ryan said, not breaking his stare from the machine. "About not being in a couple."

"Of course. That's what I said, right?" Danica stated. She never could understand why when she said she was not interested in someone, others took it to mean the opposite.

"Yeah. It's what you said," Ryan agreed.

"Everybody says that," Kelly said, shifting in her chair. "Nobody really means it."

Danica stood. "I'm going to turn in these evaluations. You continue doing what you're doing."

She stalked over to Michael's office, and knocked.

"Hey, Danica" Michael greeted as he glanced up from his computer.

"Evaluations," she said, dropping the folder on his desk.

"So you and Jim," Michael mused.

"We're not getting together," Danica clarified right off.

"Right because of the whole Pam thing." Michael's eyes widened. "Oh wait that was supposed to be a secret. You know, the kind only best friends know."

"Kelly already told me." Danica felt compelled to reassure him: maybe because, with the drama from last night's party, she had filled her quota for hysterical crying of the past twenty-four hours.

"Oh, right. Kelly." Michael let out a whistling breath. "She can't keep a secret. Typical wo- wow, can she not keep a secret."

"So I heard." Danica turned to leave.

"I've got some ideas on where you and Jim can go on your first date. There's this elevator that goes down a coal chute -"

"No thanks," she said on the way out.

No sooner did Danica arrive home when the phone rang.

Kelly wailed that Ryan had canceled their date - again.


	11. Chapter 11

Danica waylaid Ryan in the break room the next morning.

"Do you want to be with Kelly?"

Ryan paused, his coffee cup raised to his mouth. By remarkable feat, he managed not to spill any of the hot brew.

"What's it have to do with you?" he asked, his words coming out more defensive than he liked.

"Can you just answer the question?"

His stall hadn't worked. "Uh . . .

Danica slung her arms together.

"I did like her - and I still do in a way," Ryan explained. "I didn't know she was that flaky."

"Flaky?"

"Well, she is," Ryan ventured on, "And I don't see why I should apologize for saying she's flaky."

"No you don't," Danica spat out. "But if you don't want her, you should f***ing tell her instead waiting for her to get it on her own!"

Without waiting for a reply (if Ryan could summon an intelligible reply), she stalked out, the door clapping shut behind her

**Danica, in a form of apology to the audience, said, "For two whole nights, I've been listening to Kelly whine about Ryan blowing her off to hang out with his friends instead. This seems the only way to put an end to this . . . they make it so complicated and it doesn't have to be."**

**Ryan, still stunned from the confrontation, says " Kelly is hot, and intelligent conversation is not usually a priority in hookups. I'm not marrying her or anything. It's really not that complicated."**

Ryan had not broken up with Kelly, but he did seem happier with her. They went to Blue Mountain and returned closer than ever, constantly kissing and whispering together. He stopped canceling their dates (as often) and he took on a more benign outlook of Kelly's overattention. So that problem solved itself.

The downside was that Danica rarely saw one of the new supercouple without the other. The only exception was the time or two Danica hung out at Kelly's house; her parents disapproved of guys coming over to see their twenty-five-year-old daughter.

All this back and forth between Ryan and Kelly had completely distracted Danica from her other dilemmas. One of those dilemmas announced itself when Alec and Jane appearing at her apartment one night and demanded her presence in Volterra.


	12. Chapter 12

This time they did manage to surprise her. The last few check-ups, only Alec had come. Now Jane stared at her with an intense hostility that Alec seemed to have abandoned,

Alec spoke first. "You need to come with us," he ordered softly.

"Why?" Danica might have to abide by the vampire rules, but to go to their lair without knowing the reason was contrary to her survival instincts.

"The TV show," Jane hissed. "Unless there is another reason they should summon you."

"The plane is waiting," Alec interceded, gesturing to the door.

So something slipped onto the camera, Danica thought. She racked her brain for what. Had she shone when a beam of sunlight strayed into the office? Was it her almost steady diet of "cranberry juice and water?" (though she did partake in some - mostly healthy - food once in a while.) Despite Jane's bloodthirsty expectations of failure, she was right that Danica could not possibly foresee every action that could lead to their exposure.

They rode to the airport in a dark-tinted limo, then boarded the small plane. Jane and Alec sat gravely across from Danica. The trackers Demetri and Felix stood at Danica's side, ready to catch her if she attempted to escape. They ignored her brusque greeting as she settled into her seat.

When they landed in Italy, Alec reached out his hand to grip hers. "Come," he said, more gently. Jane led them out of the courtyard and Demetri and Felix and the rest of the Volturi guard grouped behind her.

They swept into the palazzo through a long echoing corridor and entered Aro's gallery. Alec immediately dropped Danica's hand.

A comically small TV set was at the center of the massive room, propped on top of a VCR. The screen was positioned so that it faced the elder vampires.

"Ah, Danica," Aro sighed. "Good for you to answer my urgent summons."

Danica met his eyes. His face was drawn, but not in fury - perhaps in disappointment. She kept her gaze on him steady, lest her submissive bow be taken as a sign of guilt.

"I have discovered a rather interesting television episode." Aro gestured to the set. "Jane, would you be so kind?"

Jane stalked over and pressed the power button on the TV and the VCR. She rotated the contraption so Danica could watch.

The screen depicted a sunny patch of woods. Dwight loomed in front of the camera. He was wearing his hunting gear. The camera crew rushed to keep up with him as he trekked across the woods.

Seconds later, he stopped. The camera aimed to the ground, which was covered by a bedsheet.

Lifting off the sheet, he unveiled a deer, its body broken and drained of blood.

"This deer has been drained dry," Dwight clarified for any audience members who might not recognize a bloodless deer corpse.

Facing the camera, he authoritatively pronounced that there was only one explanation. "This deer was slain by extraterrestrials."

With an emphatic bang, Jane switched off the set. She and the rest of the Volturi turned their heads toward Danica.

Danica resisted the urge to make a snarky comment ("You heard Dwight. It was extraterrestrials"). It was clear they expected her to answer for this discovery. She sought her voice. "I had nothing to do with that."

"Was it your deer?" Caius asked.

"No."

"Are you certain?"

She allowed indignation to seep through. "I know how to clean up after myself. Besides I avoid the land around Shrute Farms when I hunt."

"Only a vegetarian would feed from such lowly game," intoned Marcus.

Danica doubted she was the only vegetarian to enter Lackawanna County, but she did not bother stating theories. She merely repeated, "It isn't my deer."

"We examined the area," Alec offered. "Danica's scent was not among the remains or anywhere in that section of the woods."

Aro rubbed his chin. He lifted his gaze to Demetri. "Is that so?"

Demetri, scowling, admitted. "Her scent was not in those woods."

"That raises some curious questions." Aro stood and descended from his throne. He proffered his hand to Danica. "Shall we simplify this investigation?"

Danica stepped forward. Aro's hands slid caressingly over hers.

Her mouth tightened as he read all of her thoughts and memories. She hated this part, when the severe memories surfaced. They seemed to flow back into her from Aro's talented mind. The dismembered bodies of her family. The faceless soldiers brandishing guns and chloroformed rags and glowing cigarettes.

Eventually her thoughts directed to the relevant matter and Aro released her hand. "She is absolved," he declared as he swished back to his throne. "You are free to go."

Jane sighed disgustedly, as did other Volturi members.

Danica nodded, then started to retreat.

"And Danica," Aro posed, as an afterthought.

She turned back. "Yes?"

"Be sure that your fantasies of romance remain only fantasies."

She returned to the plane, traveling as fast as she could maintain while walking (which was pretty damn fast.) Alec caught up; he had volunteered to escort her back to Scranton. But for the pilot, no one else accompanied them.

"What was Aro speaking of about romantic fantasies?" Alec asked.

"I don't know." Which Danica usually substituted for 'none of your business.' This time she was just as puzzled as Alec about the comment.

"He seems satisfied that you are not behind that deer."

"Good for him." Aro had decided to declare her innocent of that mutilated deer. Danica had been innocent, but Aro could have easily curtailed the threat she posed by declaring her guilty. He had an ulterior reason for freeing her of blame. "I don't relish having to return the favor," she muttered bitterly.

"Is it a favor to say you had no part in that carelessness when you haven't?" Alec quizzed her.

"For Aro, yes."

Alec sat in a defeated silence. Then he said, "The Volturi is not any more ruthless than it has to be."

"I've heard speeches like that on the radio when I was alive."

"We are not tyrants. The elders check their members carefully. Anyone who abuses their status does not last long."

"So why did you join? Was it for the noble deeds to protect the vampire race?"

"No," Alec admitted. "I joined because Aro saved our lives, and I stayed for the sake of my sister."

That Danica did not expect. She turned her head towards Alec and earnestly regarded him. His professional demeanor did not change as he explained:

"When our mother died - from a fever - she made me promise that I would always look after Jane. And after we were changed, Jane was set on joining the Volturi. The position suits her; she wants to use her power for a bigger purpose."

"Oh." Danica felt a twinge of envy. Even in death, Alec still had family. If her brother or sister or her parents had lived, and if they had pledged themselves the Volturi, she would have been sorely tempted to join as well.


	13. Chapter 13

One of the privileges of being a vampire was that Danica could fly to Italy and back in one night and be ready for work the next day.

Dwight prepared for the impending invasion by assembling springloaded bear traps at his desk. Danica stopped and watched him swab oil on the screws that held the giant jaws together. She hoped she would be able to restrain her vampire impulses if the trap snapped off his hand. Just the thought of that blood spurting out of his wrist . . .

She raced to the breakroom for her "cranberry juice."

She emerged, fingering her empty bottle as a talisman, and watched Dwight from a safer distance.

Jim, already seated at his desk, asked, "So this is for the aliens?"

"Obviously," Dwight snorted.

"Why bear traps, then?" Jim pondered. "Wouldn't UFOs just fly over their targets and beam them up?"

"Idiot. Obviously, the aliens have transmogrified into humanoid bodies so they can blend in with their human prey. I know this because they left human footprints at the site of the deer mutilation." Throughout this explanation, Dwight's attention remained riveted on the trap. He stood and released a layer of tissue paper over the teeth. The trap clamped shut.

That was too uncomfortably close to the truth for Danica. And that would likely appear on the show; there was no way the producers would leave out footage of Dwight monkeying with a bear trap.

Toby arrived just as Dwight was cranking the trap back open. "Dwight, that is really not a safe tool for the office," he cautioned in his typical drone.

"You know what else isn't safe for the office?" Dwight replied. "Worldwide alien massacre."

Meanwhile Jim drifted over to the receptionists' desk. He leaned over to Pam.

By then the clock chimed the beginning of the workday. Danica wandered back the annex, where Ryan and Kelly were surfing the web.

"Jim's planning an alien invasion," she reported blandly, as she crumpled her plastic bottle and set it on her desk.

"Makes sense," Ryan said.

"God, Dwight is such a freak," Kelly giggled.

Danica groaned to herself.

She said out loud, more casually than she felt, "You're at that point already?"

"What point?" Ryan asked.

"Where you think the same thing at the same time?"

"We were born at that point," Kelly answered. Ryan did not say anything. He released his arm from around Kelly's waist.

Angela barged in. "No. Only one person to a chair!" She shrieked. "Are you trying to create a hazard?"

Ryan sprang himself and Kelly from the chair.

Angela picked up Danica's water bottle. "And you are supposed to remove the label and the plastic ring. Or do Eskimos not know how to separate recycling materials?"

"Toby didn't say to," Danica said.

"Well Toby's not in charge of safety regulations. I am." Angela threw them all a withering look and stalked out.

At ten-thirty, the lights flickered signaling the alien invasion was about to begin.

"Do you want to watch?" Ryan asked.

Kelly cupped her hand over her phone. "I can't," she whined.

"Hurry up and finish it."

Danica swiveled away from the computer. "Do you know a good place to watch? Where we won't be seen?"

"Hallway's better."

She crept to the door. Dwight was busy with some order slip. Quietly, she slipped behind him and out the door. Ryan joined her a minute later, just before 10:33, when all the computers in the main office would inexplicably short out. Jim had warned everyone but Dwight to prepare for the outage.

At 10:33, the lights flickered and all the computer screens blinked off. Dwight sprang from his desk, twitching his head around to observe that the outage affected the other computers as well.

"All right, stay calm, people," he called out. "It appears we have a technical glitch -"

Jim leaned over and switched on the mini-recorder on the floor. Whooping sounds pulsed into the room, much like those in low budget science fiction movies. Dwight froze, a terrified grimace spreading over his face. He obviously hadn't expected the "aliens" to come so soon.

"Look!" Pam shouted, pointing at the wall by Michael's office. A holographic set of lights wandered along the wall.

"Michael!" Dwight hurtled over his desk. He crashed in through the door after the hologram vanished through it.

Michael cowered under the desk. "It's the terrorists!" Michael was shouting. "We're all going to die!"

The invasion stopped. Jim flicked on the lights.

"Michael, I told you to expect a system outage," Pam said, exasperated. Meanwhile, Jim pressed the stop button on the recorder, silencing the sound effects.

"Wait a minute," Dwight said, coming into realization. "You mean we aren't being invaded by aliens?"

"Why the hell would aliens be coming here?" Stanley Hudson groused. But Dwight was only focused on Jim's smug grin.

"Ergggh!" Dwight grunted. "You can not make jokes about alien invasions. It endangers all of us."

Kelly dashed out from the annex. "Did I miss it?" she asked frantically.

**"Of course, I didn't see the holograms or anything," Michael tries to defend his reaction. "All I knew was that the lights and my por- um, my computer went out. So, naturally, my first thought was that terrorists had bombed the office building. Power outages are usually the first sign of terrorists crashing a plane into your building."**


	14. Chapter 14

"I can't believe I missed it," Kelly sulked, poking her fork in her pasta salad. Danica and Ryan filled her in on the chaos from Jim's latest prank.

"Don't worry," Ryan consoled her. "It's not like stuff like this doesn't happen all the time."

"I guess that's true." Kelly forced a smile. "Remember the fire, when Michael cut in front of us and ran out before anyone else?"

"He did?" Danica asked. "Was that a prank or a real fire?"

"A real fire. Ryan left the foil on his burrito and the microwave overheated -"

"I never tire of telling that story," Ryan sighed.

Kelly cut herself short. "Ohmigod, I'm sorry Danica. That was insensitive of me."

Danica squeezed her napkin. "It's okay."

"It's fine," Ryan said, trying to smooth things over. "I bet there was lots of stuff that happened before I came here too."

Kelly shook her head. "I mean because her parents died in a fire."

Ryan had just taken a bite from his granola bar. He coughed, rapping his knuckles against his chest, and swallowed heavily.

"It was a long time ago," Danica stated. "And I don't really remember it.

Kelly offered her personal brand of sympathy, including the statement that "if that happened to me, I would not be able to look at a microwave without freaking out."

"It had nothing to do with a microwave," Danica corrected.

"Well, I'm glad you weren't there during the fire here." Kelly glared at Ryan as if he were personally responsible for the fire that killed Danica's family.

Ryan leaned forward and patted her hand. "I'm sorry to hear about that," he said.

"Thank you," Danica said, forgetting to stress how long ago the tragedy was.

**To the camera, Danica says, "No. There's no real story to it."**

"So, was that your idea?" Alec asked as he and Danica roamed through the Upper Delaware Wilds, for hunting. "The alien invasion?"

"No. It was all Jim and Pam."

The evening was warm, ushering in an early spring. Icicles dripped off of tree branches, magnifying the scents of the small game. Danica found that she was enjoying the stroll. She hoped they didn't run into hikers.

"It was good," Alec commented. "It helped that it undermines Dwight."

If Danica did not know better, she would have thought he was watching the show. More likely he and Jane had merely been keeping up with their supervision.

"Dwight's undermined pretty well by himself." Danica stepped over a fallen log.

She caught a scent of a herd of elk. After picking out a clear path between her and the herd, she dashed in and snatched one of the elk. She dragged it out of screeching distance from the rest of the herd and drank up.

She buried the remains and returned to the fallen log where Alec waited. "Not bad," he said.

"Bite me."

His businesslike demeanor returned. "The camera crew hired a new video editor."

"Oh. I didn't realize they were hiring." Danica spoke before she realized what Alec meant; he had installed a Volturi agent in the camera crew. "Wait, so you put one of your lackeys in the production crew?"

"Yes. It's a natural solution," Alec reasoned. "The agent can remove any footage that exposes you as a vampire."

Should she be impressed by this idea? It did have a ring of ingenious compromise to it. The Volturi would no longer need to worry about her accidentally sparkling in front of millions of viewers.

Still, she needed to know Alec's motivation behind this idea.

"Why would you and this agent want to do this?" she asked.

"Isn't it apparent? You remain in the show without wrathful repercussions. No one gets endangered, which benefits all of us."

Danica crossed her arms. A protest rested on the tip of her tongue. "I'm sure some of your colleagues would disagree," she hedged.

"They might fantasize about massacre, but realistically any mysterious death of a public figure will call attention to us."

_Odd_, Danica thought to herself, _that the TV show that serves as a threat to the Volturi is at the same time helping to ensure my survival._ Because if she disappeared, people would notice. And that is exactly what the Volturi want to avoid.

They neared the end of the trail. "Are you going to get anything while we're here?" Danica asked.

Alec lowered his eyebrows as he shook his head. Though he did not say it out loud, he preferred to get human prey. "I'll get something later."

"Hmmm." Danica saw right through his polite evasion.

They did not speak the rest of the way to Scranton.

Jane met her brother at a low-income neighborhood.

"The younger ones never do learn gratitude," she said, sulking. She tossed Alec's meal, bound and gagged, on the ground.

Alec ate quickly. Though abstaining from human blood was beyond his means, the least he could do was not prolong the human's suffering.

"She'll never be one of us," Jane informed him. "She's weighed down by all those trite principles of the twentieth century."

Alec wiped a trickle of blood from his chin. "It doesn't matter. This plan will work."

"It must." Jane started to pace. "What a troublesome development."

"One we were bound to run into sooner or later," Alec reasoned. "With television and the Internet. Humans no longer exist in private groups. Such technology will affect our ability to hunt them."

"That's no reason that a vampire needs to make a spectacle of herself with the humans' idiotic inventions." She glanced at the sky. "Come. We must see to things in Seattle."


	15. Chapter 15

Angela enlisted Danica, Kelly and Ryan to set up the meeting room for Take Your Daughter To Work Day. She put Kelly to setting the craft table then surveyed the banner that Danica and Ryan had hung.

"It's crooked," Angela harped.

"On purpose," Ryan explained, not wanting to spend the effort redoing it. "We put it on a slant to convey a playful, fun atmosphere."

"No, it's sloppy. I will not have these children inspired to misbehave because of sloppy decorations. Do it over."

Ryan looked over at Danica and shrugged. For a moment Danica wanted to laugh, but she suppressed it. Something about the wordless exchange between them seemed indecent.

Toby arrived then, leading his preschool age daughter Sasha. "What do you say?" he prompted her.

"Do you need any help?" Sasha uttered.

Kelly's face melted into a charming smile. Angela, however, held steadfast to her micromanaging ways.

"No," she said. "Then we'd have to explain it to you. It's easier if we just did it ourselves."

Dejected, Sasha let her father take her back to the annex. As soon as they left, Kelly gushed. "Ohhhh, she's so cute I want to die. Don't you just love kids, Angela?"

Danica's eyes drifted to Ryan. He had frozen, his arms stiff and his hands tightly clenched around the banner. She coughed, and he jumped back to focus, with only slight damage to the banner.

Like Kelly, Angela gazed after the exit, where Dwight was standing within view. "I guess I wouldn't mind a couple of well-behaved boys."

"God, I cannot wait to get pregnant and have babies," Kelly sang. Danica had heard all of this before, but Ryan was getting paler and paler the longer Kelly talked.

"We'd better check the plugs in the annex," she suggested. "Make sure everything's covered." She gently yanked at Ryan's arm.

"Right, the plugs," he echoed.

Angela grudgingly nodded her assent and Kelly continued to talk about kids and babies.

Ryan had regained his bearings once they left the meeting room. Though they were alone when they returned to the annex, Danica made a token check on all the plugs in the room.

"She wasn't serious," he declared, dropping into Danica's swivel chair.

"I'm more weirded out by the idea of Angela having kids," Danica said, to change the subject. And with Dwight. They would be tiny-boned, broadheaded kids, adept at reciting rosaries and firing crossbows.

"Did she ever mention kids to you?" Ryan asked.

Honestly, she said, "Kelly would like kids at some point in her life, I suppose, but she hasn't made serious plans about it."

"No." He stood. "No big deal. It's just that this is the first time she mentioned it. I guess after seeing Sasha, she was just daydreaming out loud."

"She is cute," Danica agreed noncommittally.

"You're all insane." The groan was barely audible to the camera crew lurking by them, but Danica heard it clearly.

Danica had the annex to herself for the next hour. She had returned most of the voicemails when suddenly she heard Stanley Hudson's voice ring out.

"That little girl is a child! I don't want to see you sniffin' around her anymore this afternoon, do you understand me? Boy, have you lost your mind, cause if so I shall help you find it! What'cha looking for? You're not going to find it! Jesus could come through that door and he's not going to help you if you come sniffin' around my child!"

Danica's finger remained poised on the dial button, waiting until Stanley finished his tirade before she patched through. Once she was sure Stanley would not start up again, she made the call, only to get a busy signal. She hung up just as Kelly strutted into the annex with a smug smile.

"What was that about?" Danica asked.

"What was what about?" Kelly echoed innocently.

"I heard Stanley shouting . . ."

"Oh, that. I guess Stanley doesn't like it when guys who already have girlfriends go flirting with teenage tramps."

"Where would he get that i-" Danica left that unfinished because it occurred to her just how Stanley would have found out about Ryan's so-called liaison with Melissa. "You're evil."

"I know." Kelly perched on her chair, her eyes glittering with pride. "Now he'll think twice before looking at another girl."

Danica frowned. "Was he looking?"

"Well, she was doing most of the talking," Kelly admitted. "But he wasn't exactly discouraging her." Danica continued to frown. "Okay, she had him cornered in the breakroom and she asked for his pager number but he didn't give it to her. But he could have been more direct."

"Well, Stanley was very direct," Danica confirmed.

"You could hear that through the wall?" Kelly asked.

Danica jabbed at the mouse on her computer. "He was loud," she said. Her sensitive ears picked up Dwight playing Greensleeves on his recorder.

"I wish Take Your Daughter to Work Day only allowed cute little kids," Kelly mumbled.

Ryan stopped in the annex while Kelly took another unauthorized break. "I'm taking a field trip to Dixon City. Wanna come?"

Danica thought of the sun blazing away all morning. "No. You wouldn't want a third wheel tagging along."

Ryan shifted from one foot to another. "Actually, I didn't invite Kelly."

Danica stopped typing. "Oh." Ryan nodded. "Because she sicced Stanley on you?"

"Yeah, I'm going to be petty and exclude her this one time," Ryan explained sheepishly.

"Oh." Secretly, Danica was relieved, both by Ryan's assurance that it was only a temporarily slight and that he provided a viable excuse to refuse him. "I'd better not. This is between you and Kelly and . . ."

"Right." Ryan quickly agreed. "No, you're right. You don't want to get involved."

Danica turned back to her typing, doing her best to ignore his lingering for another second.

"I'd better get the pizzas," he said.

"Have a good trip," she replied, trying to sound cheery and friendly and not the least bitter or weird.


	16. Chapter 16

"Attention, annex employees," Dwight declared. He held up a manila envelope. "Tomorrow is Michael Scott's forty-second birthday. I am passing around an envelope to collect monetary contributions. The funds will go to food, supplies and entertainments for his birthday celebration. You are expected to give generously."

"Just leave the envelope on the desk, Dwight," Toby suggested.

"Why? So you can steal the money after the others put in their donations? I'm not taking chances. This envelope remains on my person at all times."

"Michael never reimbursed me for the bikini I bought for the booze cruise," Kelly said. "So I'm not giving him a cent."

Dwight glared at her. "Michael gives you the means to finance your personal shopping sprees. You will contribute and you will be grateful for everything Michael gives you."

He thrust the envelope in Danica's face. Danica, sighing, took out her purse and placed a couple of dollar bills inside.

"That's it?" Dwight demanded as he riffled through the money.

"I have student loans."

"All right," he grumbled. He stuffed the envelope down the front of his mustard-colored shirt and clomped back to the main office.

Danica and Kelly met Ryan and his friends at Flynn's, a more upscale pub than Poor Richard's. Danica watched as Ryan downed two large mugs of beer, while Kelly took ladylike sips of her drink.

Ah, the fun of being a designated driver. Danica had ordered a cola. Like with the whipped cream on her date with Ryan, Danica was drinking soda for the first time in years. The bubbles created a fierce tickle in her nose.

Ryan admitted, "I am not looking forward to Michael's birthday."

"Who's Michael?" Hank asked.

When Ryan did not answer right away, Danica said, "Our boss."

"Ouch. What does he make you do?" Hank joked. "Make you carry him around in a rickshaw?"

"It's not a big deal," Kelly said. "He has a party and a cake and we don't do that much work."

"The bastard," Leslie murmured with exaggerated sympathy.

"Not a big deal for you," Ryan muttered to Kelly. Kelly, after all, would not be subject to Michael's awkward homoerotic humor.

Greg fetched Leslie away from the table. Hank looked to Mira. "Wanna beat them at darts?"

Mira sulked. If they weren't at a different pub, Danica would have doubted the sullen girl had changed position during the weeks since she met her.

Kelly's chair scraped closer to Ryan's.

"How's your soda?" Ryan asked, feeling a twinge of guilt that they kept leaving the designated driver duties to her.

"Good."

"That's the fountain kind right?" Kelly babbled. "Like they had in the fifties. God it would be so cool to live in the fifties and go to soda fountains and sock hops and everything."

"And the polio and the segregated drinking fountains," Mira added crassly. "If it were the fifties, Ryan certainly would not be dating you."

Kelly's face fell.

"That was uncalled for," Ryan growled in Kelly's defense.

"No, it was called for. Little Miss Universe should know how ridiculous she sounds."

"Come on, Mira." Hank lifted her out of the chair. "Let's have some fun."

Mira did not fight back as Hank pulled her over to the corner. She was too drunk to seriously object.

"What is her problem?" Kelly exclaimed. "I've been totally nice to her, right Dani? Why does she act like a total bitch?"

So Kelly had not noticed Mira's big doe eyes at Ryan? Danica asked herself. She noticed a thirteen year old flirting with her boyfriend but not Mira. Though, Danica reminded herself, Melissa was much more obvious about her intentions.

"Mira doesn't have a sense of humor," Ryan said evenly. Kelly's anger receded.

"Dani," Kelly giggled, distracted. "That guy is totally checking you out."

Danica turned ("Don't look! Don't look!" Kelly admonished, until Ryan clapped a hand over her mouth, which only made her giggle harder.) She spotted Alec standing by the counter.

"Oh, for crying out loud," Danica muttered. On Ryan's curious look, she explained, "I know him. He's my . . . cousin. I'll be right back."

As she stood, Kelly whispered "He's a babe."

"You mean that literally?" Ryan replied sourly. "He looks sixteen."

Danica approached the counter.

"Hello, Danica," Alec greeted. His dark eyes flashed with an odd brown hue.

"Your eyes . . ."

"Contact lenses," he explained. "We always carry a pair if we need to appear in public."

"Fascinating," Danica said, before remembering to warn him, "Before you experiment, you should know that yes, we can also get drunk."

Alec's newly brown eyes trailed to the drink Danica was holding. "So you are living dangerously again."

Danica followed his gaze to her cola. "This isn't alcoholic. It's soda." Alec grimaced. "Have you ever had soda before?"

She guessed not, because he must have turned before soda water was invented. She pushed her glass toward him. "Try it."

Alec hesitated before he awkwardly moved the straw to his mouth. He took a sip, and nearly crushed the glass when the rush of bubbles reached his nose. Luckily, Danica whisked away the glass in time.

"It's odd," Alec commented at last, once he was sure his head would not explode. "Like ash flavored champagne."

"Right."

"I came because I have news," Alec said. "About the deer. We discovered who left the remains. There was another young one in Scranton. Younger than you but not a newborn. He's been responsible for some of the murders in New York. Anyway he won't be a problem in Scranton anymore."

"Oh." Danica replied, withdrawing, as she always did, when Alec brought up the Volturi or his duties.

"He's in Volterra," Alec said. He seemed to be developing a penchance for surprising her. "Aro spared him because of his talent. He can affect weather. This talent would be of tremendous use to use when we go on assignments. We would no longer have to confine our travels to nighttime or rain."

"So it would," Danica said. Then she recalled the tornado during her first day. A tornado in January_. This stray vampire must have created it_.

Her stomach quivered at the thought of a human-eating vampire coming so close to her workplace. She glanced at Ryan. He was nursing his fourth or fifth beer, but at least he was slowing down in his gulps.

"So this guy," Danica strained to reclaim the thread of their conversation, "should I expect him to accompany you and Jane on your check-ins?"

"Not for a few weeks," Alec said. "Aro wants to keep him in the palace until he learns more discretion. But when he does come on assignments, Jane and I are the best ones to supervise him."

"How's Jane taking it?" she asked.

"She's not happy. But she agrees that a weather controller would be an asset to us."

Alec trailed back. "I'll let you get back to your coworkers." He bowed, and then headed towards the exit.

"Ohmigod, Dani, he is so handsome," Kelly said. "Are you sure he's your cousin? Because he would be an awesome boyfriend for you."

"I think Danica knows who her cousins are," Ryan grunted.

"I know she does," Kelly snapped. She was still feeling a little raw from Mira's insult. "What I meant is he blood related? Because if he's not, then it's totally not gross or anything."

Ryan rested his hands on his pounding head. "Do you have to talk about blood right now?"

"Maybe we should get home," Kelly said.

"So soon?" Mira slurred.

"Actually, going home sounds like a good idea now," Hank, the other designated driver among the group, agreed. He draped Mira over his shoulder and motioned to Greg and Leslie towards the exit.

Ryan stood up after Kelly, but stumbled. Danica caught him before he struck his head against the counter.

Kelly blinked. "How'd you get on that side so fast?" Danica realized she had lapsed into vampire speed. Luckily, because she had traveled such a short distance, no one else seemed to notice. "Help me with him," she pleaded instead, and pretended to struggle to support his weight.

Together, the women lifted him out of the bar to Danica's car. Danica fumbled for the car keys and opened the back seat door. They dropped Ryan against the cushy seat, and dashed to the front.

"How many drinks did you have anyway?" she asked Ryan as she revved up the motor and wedged open the windows.

"Nine," he stuttered.

"While you were talking with your cousin, he was just sitting there, gulping down one drink after another," Kelly complained. "Ryan, I swear, if you puke in Dani's car . . ."

"It's okay," Danica said. "I'd rather have puke in my car than him dying of alcohol poisoning."

"I'll make him pay for the cleaning," Kelly vowed.

Danica paused thoughtfully over Kelly's joke. "Oh. I'll allow that."

"Could you two please stop giggling?" Ryan begged from the back seat.


	17. Chapter 17

The dreaded day arrived. Despite the hangover and the distractions of Michael's birthday and Kevin's mole biopsy, Ryan actually managed to get some real work done. Unfortunately, his productive stride came to a crashing halt a few minutes before the cake cutting, when he overheard something disturbing in the break room. Something so terrible he did not dare repeat it.

He put on a brave face when he visited the girls in the annex.

"They're getting the cake out," he said woodenly.

"Oh, goody!" Kelly bounced up.

Danica studied his weird behavior. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Fine. As long as I never eat cookies again." Ryan pushed the unspeakable mental image out his mind.

"So you're not going to have cake?" Kelly asked. "Because if you don't want any, then I don't want any either."

Danica stood up. "Let's just get to the party before they start singing."

"We don't have to be on time for the singing," Ryan advised.

Kelly nodded. "It's really bad."

To prove their point, Michael's grandiose voice belted out the final words to the Happy Birthday song. Danica winced, then covered it up; she was not sure if Michael's singing should be audible from here.

"Oh, Kevin got a call," Kelly observed as she yanked Ryan into the main office. While they did not seem to mind missing the singing or the cake, they were as curious as everyone else about the biopsy results.

Kevin had hung up his phone, and Michael was continuing the festivities, though no one but Dwight paid him any attention. They got louder and louder until Angela finally put them out of their ignorance.

Everyone retreated to his or her workstations. Danica brought up two slices of cake. She had intended to give one slice to Toby and eat the second one. Because Ryan had remained in the main office, Kelly broke her pretense at having a dainty appetite and took the second slice for herself.

The office was silent enough that Danica could hear each click of a mouse. She could not recall another day that it was ever this quiet. She listened to Toby and Kelly dig into their cake slices.

Fifteen minutes later, Kevin came into the annex to discuss HR procedures with Toby. Danica and Kelly ducked into the breakroom to allow him privacy.

"Do you think Kevin will die?" Kelly whispered.

"No. Skin cancer has a good recovery rate these days," Danica said distantly, shaking her bottle of "cranberry juice."

"It always happens so suddenly,"Kelly said, also distant. "One minute everything's fine and then - boom - it's not. It's not fair. There should be a warning."

Danica sensed Kelly was not referring to Kevin's possible skin cancer. She sensed that Kelly was holding back her thoughts, which was unusual enough. Kelly had always been willing to share on any topic: the more uncomfortable the topic, the more eager she was to talk on and on about it.

No need to pry. For one thing, if Kelly's reticence was a rare bid for privacy, Danica certainly should not bring it up in the office, with cameras rolling.

They hovered in the breakroom, attempting a clipped conversation, until Michael announced they were all going on a surprise trip.

The ice rink was the perfect distraction for Ryan. Even during the crisis of Kevin's biopsy, Ryan's brain kept switching from the unspeakable horror in the breakroom to Danica's smug cousin and back. Oh, and Kelly sobbing that she would be utterly lost if anything ever happened to him. And Danica's smug cousin.

He spent so much time tying his laces that Kelly got impatient and pushed off onto the ice, skating in wide circles. Ryan glanced over at Danica, who was also fumbling with her laces.

"You ever skated before?" he asked her.

Danica tried crossing the laces more tightly. "It's been awhile," she said through gritted teeth. Willing herself to soften to congeniality, she returned. "How about you?"

"No. Never."

Danica gave one final tug. Unfortunately, she tugged too hard. The laces snapped, as audibly as the crack of a whip.

She held up the end of the strings and swore in a strange language.

"Wait here," Ryan said. He jammed on the blade blocks and staggered over to the counter and told the employee behind the counter (a scrawny man of indeterminate age) he needed extra laces.

"They cost extra," drawled the counter guy.

Ryan considered. "How much?"

"Ten dollars."

Ryan slipped out his wallet and extracted a ten dollar bill. The counter guy reached under the counter and pulled up a plastic container of laces.

Ryan returned to the rink and handed them to Danica. She was slow to take them.

"Thanks," she said casually. "I owe you one." She pulverized the packaging and unwound the laces.

"No problem," Ryan said. Now that his hands were empty, he was at a loss with what to do with them. He pressed them behind his back, out of Danica's sight.

"Just don't garrotte your foot off," he quipped.

She smiled. "Don't worry. I have strong ankles."

Ryan aimed a sideways glance at her ankles. He could not see much, with the thick leather of the skates and her pant legs covering her skin, but that only enhanced his lustful imagination.

Kelly materialized beside him. "Ryan, what's taking you so long?" she chastised, pulling him out to the ice. He hurriedly pulled the blocks off his skates and skidded after Kelly.

Danica tied off one boot and transferred to the other. She watched from the corner of her eye as Ryan achieved a wobbly balance. He clung to Kelly, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. The two human bodies enjoined, tentatively gliding to the far side of the rink.


	18. Chapter 18

She tried to pay him back the next day. Because he wouldn't accept it from her, she hid the money in his coat. The next day, the ten dollar bill reappeared in her purse, then just as mysteriously disappeared. Somebody had snatched it. Danica later learned it was Creed. The camera crew had filmed him executing a pickpocket maneuver from her purse.

By then she had met the Volturi member Alec had implanted within the crew. Gita was an Indian girl, but the exact opposite of Kelly in behavior and temperament. While Kelly was friendly and chatty, Gita was introverted and a bit standoffish to Danica. She clearly signaled that just because Alec forced her to this task did not mean she would become Danica's new best buddy.

The phone rang. Danica picked up. She was not expecting anyone special. Only Kelly or Michael called her.

"Danica, hi. Long time, no hear." She did not recognize the voice. It was a female, with a faintly musical tone. Distracted with scribbling down the last word, Danica guessed, "Pam?"

"It's Tanya."

"Oh." Danica's pen fell out of her hand. She shifted to a sit. "Wow. I'm sorry. You sound so different on the phone. What's new?"

"Nice save," Tanya answered, amused. "But I guess I can't expect a world famous TV star to remember her rustic beginnings. We've been watching the show, by the way. If we didn't know any better, we would have completely believed you were human."

Her praise left Danica a bit flustered. "Thanks," she said uneasily. "So you like the show?"

"It's hilarious. Kate and I could not stop laughing when Michael asked you how you adjusted to driving cars after sled dogs. He's adorably clueless."

"Wow, Tanya, really? Michael?"

Tanya laughed nervously. "I see that he would be difficult to live with, but it's fun to watch. I guess getting infatuated with humans is the new trend nowadays. Between you and Edward -"

"What?" Danica jolted up.

"Oh," Tanya sobered. "I guess you missed all of this. But the thing is, Edward has fallen in love with this human."

"That wasn't . . . Edward fell in love with a human?"

Tanya hesitated. "

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything." Tanya's voice oozed sympathy, but sympathy was hardly necessary.

"Tanya, I don't have a problem with you talking about Edward. That was ages ago," Danica insisted. "Tell me about the human."

"They met at school," Tanya said.

The Cullens were still doing that, no surprise. Graduating from high school again and again. Danica could never see the reason for this. None of them looked so young that it would alert the truant officers. The only advantage it could give them, Danica had often ruminated to herself, was that it helped them keep up with the latest developments in technology and fashion.

Danica had never had the high school experience. The Cullens had kept her home the year she stayed with them, under the guise of her being "homeschooled" while supposedly recovering from severe burns from the house fire that killed her parents. Looking back, she felt like she had been left out of something fairly important. High school was just another example of the rites of passage that eluded her abrupt transfer to an early adulthood.

Tanya launched into the full tale of Edward and Bella, which would have struck Danica as convoluted if she had not been working at Dunder Mifflin these past few months. Though the romance was very characteristic of Edward. Sneaking into Bella's room to watch her sleep. Attempting suicide by Volturi because he thought his beloved was dead.

After Tanya finished, Danica asked, "How does that girl manage his reading her mind all the time?"

"He can't. There's something weird about Bella's brain, like it's protected from vampire talents. Actually, when they were in Volterra, Aro had Jane try her power on her, and it didn't work."

"Wow." Danica would have given her right arm to see Jane's face when she realized her pain flashes had no effect.

"So Aro is very curious about what sort of power Bella will have when she's changed."

"She's going to change?" Danica asked.

"After graduation. And the wedding. Which reminds me. You're invited to the wedding. You can have Irina's invitation."

"Why isn't Irina going?"

"Remember the man she was seeing? Laurent? He was killed."

And Danica had not known. She had not been there. An icicle of guilt lodged in her heart. "Oh, Tanya. I'm so sorry."

Tanya, dismissive, switched the subject. "It's a couple of weeks after Pam's wedding so you don't have to worry about missing it. And it's a human wedding - for Bella's family - so you can bring a guest if you'd like."

"A guest. You mean like Michael?" Danica teased.

"Or Ryan."

"He's with Kelly."

"Of course." Tanya dodged Danica's defensive tone. "So can you come?"

"Um, I'm not sure." Danica's tongue searched for an excuse. "I'll have to check my work schedule."

"Okay. I hope you can come."

"Sure." That feeling that she was letting the Denalis down resurged. It could not be just her imagination that Tanya sounded so sad and wistful. She added, "It's great to hear from you again," and she realized she meant it.

"Call me back when you find out about your schedule," Tanya ordered.

"I will," Danica said. She hung up and dropped the phone so her clenched hand would not accidentally crush it.

She had promised herself she would cut herself completely from the Denalis and the Cullens. It would be her alone making her way in the world. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, she was heavily tempted to accept the invitation to the wedding.


	19. Chapter 19

The next couple of weeks passed by in a blur, during which Danica was accused of smoking marijuana, accused of practicing Satanism (Angela had seen her Stonehenge screensaver), and accused of ducking from Kelly and Ryan's invitations to sunbathe or ride bikes. A rift seemed to form between her and the supercouple. Kelly and Ryan seemed closer and happier than ever.

That, however, was an outsider's perspective. Ryan was feeling restless and stifled. Kelly wanted to do everything with him every hour of the day, every day of the week. She tagged along on all his outings with his friends. If he suggested he wanted to go out without her, she cried about how ugly and stupid she was. He could not think clearly. That was why he was lusting after Kelly's best friend every day.

Soon it was Casino Night at the Dunder-Mifflin warehouse. As expected, Ryan was going with Kelly.

He arrived at the Kapoors' house, dressed in a tux. He did not bring flowers. Flowers would only complicate the message he was going to give her.

He was going to break up with her. Tonight.

Kelly flung open the door and minced down the steps in her two-inch heels. Because she was rushing, she slipped on the lawn and fell. Ryan climbed out of the car and helped her up.

"Thanks," she said. "My parents are being total pills. They wanted to scrutinize you. Like that would change their minds."

"Kelly." An older man stood at the door. "You bring that boy here so your mother and I can meet him."

"But we're going to be late."

"Kelly Ramichandra Kapoor."

"All right. Geez." Kelly closed her hand around Ryan's with vise-like strength and pulled him inside.

"Mom, Dad this is Ryan. Ryan this is my parents," she recited obediently to the older man and woman. Giggles punctuated her unenthusiastic speech, indicating her sisters lurked nearby.

"Nice to meet you." Ryan stuck his hand out to Mr. Kapoor. Mr. Kapoor narrowed his eyes at Ryan's bold gesture.

Mrs. Kapoor muttered in Hindi. Kelly's sisters giggled again.

"I want Kelly back at eleven," Mr. Kapoor ordered. "And you keep your hands to yourself. She's a good girl."

"Yes sir." Ryan said. Not that Mr. Kapoor's demands would stop Kelly's determination.

They made it safely back in the car, and Kelly exploded. "I can't believe my stupid parents. They're so old-fashioned. I'm twenty-five years old; it would be worse if I was a virgin."

"Not necessarily," Ryan said, not thinking of the implications of his words.

"Are you insinuating something, Ryan Howard? Because I'll have you know, that I was pure and chaste until I succumbed to your seductions."

A jolt of panic, but it only lasted a moment. "You told me you had done it before."

"And you were so quick to believe me. Did you think I was some whore you could just toss away after you were done with me?"

"I don't think you're a whore, Kelly," Ryan sighed.

"There's just no way to please you men." Kelly slumped into a pout. "You judge all experienced women to be damaged goods and then when you find out you've slept with a virgin, it's an even bigger deal.

" The big deal was that you lied about it."

"Oh, sure. Because I lied about it," Kelly snorted.

Ryan regretted the timing of this conversation. He had wanted to get the break up over with, but if he tried now, Kelly would only accuse him of breaking up with him because he had already slept with her. He revised his plan. He would wait until she calmed down. He had planned poorly anyway, breaking up with her before said date. He should at least let her enjoy part of the night.

He parked the car, then rounded the car and opened the door while she pouted. Her shoulders lost their stiffness and she laid out her hand.

They crossed parking lot.

They both did poorly on the roulette and the blackjack table. Ryan could not concentrate and Kelly was too focused on him.

Then Danica swept by. She had a simple burgundy dress, with ruffled sleeves and her long hair covering her tantalizing shoulders. Kelly squealed when she saw the dress; apparently she had helped Danica choose it.

"Did you win anything?" Danica asked them, leaning her flawless arms on the blackjack table.

"No. But Ryan is an expert player," Kelly bragged. "He almost beat Kevin."

"No I didn't." Ryan corrected. "I overdrew."

"But Kevin's a good player. He's had tons of practice reading facial expressions."

"Kevin doesn't have much of an expressive face," Ryan said in defense. "If he gets really happy, it only means he's imagining the queen undressed."

"Ryan!" Kelly tried to sound shocked. Danica only nodded in agreement. "True."

She slid into the chair opposite Ryan. "Let's see your skills at work."

The dealer tossed out the cards. They drew theirs in, glanced down at the cards, then back at each other.

Ryan put forth a stack of ten chips. Danica returned with an identical stack.

"Card please," he said. He added another stack of ten chips.

The dealer turned to Danica.

"I'm good," she said. Then she tossed in only two more chips.

"Losing confidence?"

"Where did you get that idea?" Danica said. "Maybe I'm just frugal."

"All right." Ryan decided. "No cards."

They laid out their results. Ryan had a twenty-one. Danica had a twenty.

"Yay, Danica," Kelly shouted. She swooped over and hugged her friend.

"Actually, Howard won," the warehouse guy said.

"Oh," Kelly said. Then she lunged to Ryan. "Yay, babe. This is so cool."

Danica chanced on several more games of blackjack, winning two out of five games. Then she decided to circulate.

Ryan stood. "Want me to get you something to drink?" he asked Kelly.

Kelly smiled. "Sure. The usual?"

"Of course."

He headed towards the bar, then switched back and accosted the roulette table where Danica waited her turn. He shuffled in behind her.

"I'm going to break up with Kelly," Ryan blurted.

Danica turned.

Suddenly realizing this conversation called for privacy, Ryan led her outside. He stopped and faced her, but she had not reacted. She looked back at him in stunned silence.

The sky had darkened, lending a menacing atmosphere to their clandestine meeting. The nerves on Ryan's back prickled. Danica was too silent; he could not even hear her breathing. It brought to mind an image of a carnivore about to pounce on its prey.

Ryan forced his mind off those associations and focused on his apologies.

"I know she's your friend and all. It's just that we want different things. I'm not ready to for marriage and kids and all the things she expects. I can't promise her that I'll ever be ready for those commitments. So it would be better for her if we moved on."

"Why are you telling me this?" Danica whispered.

"She's your friend. The last thing I want is to hurt her. I-I just don't . . ." Ryan could not finish explaining that he did not want her to think badly of him. He did not want Danica to see him as the villain that cruelly smashed Kelly's heart. Kelly would be crying for weeks, but she would get over it. This was supposed to be good for her. It would allow her to move on to someone who loved her as much as she demanded.

Instead, he kissed Danica. His mouth, of its own accord, decided to stop talking and pursue her reddish-brown lips. She leaned back and he braced his arm around her waist to stop her from falling.

Once she regained her balance, he let go, sheepish. "I'm sorry," he rasped. "I hadn't meant . . ."

Danica traveled forward and returned her lips to his. The kiss lengthened, drawing out his breath. The world spun around them.

It was still spinning as they parted.

Danica repeated that word she had uttered in the ice rink. Ryan deduced that it could not be a good sign.

"I should get back," he stuttered. Then he launched himself back to the warehouse, not daring to look back at her.


	20. Chapter 20

Danica remained outside, watching the stars and the airplanes streak through the black sky. The last thing she wanted was to go back inside and gamble and pretend everything was all right when it was not.

Jim's voice reached her. He was at Jan's car. Jan smoked and asked him if he had told anyone about the transfer to Stamford.

She stepped closer, listening intently to the exchange. Jan did not seem to understand the reason Jim was so anxious to leave, but it was clear to Danica. She was in the same situation. She was in love with Ryan, or was at least agonizingly infatuated with him. Like Jim could never have Pam, she could never have Ryan. She could never even have a chance.

Even if he was breaking up with Kelly tonight, and by some miracle Kelly did not fall apart, it could never happen. So Edward's girlfriend was human. That did not relate to Danica's situation. Ryan did not know about her true nature, or her tenuous connection to the Volturi, or even the past that had left her broken.

When Jan stalked off, Jim glanced over and spotted Danica.

"You're leaving?" she repeated.

"Yeah," Jim said, sheepish at having been caught.

"Does Pam know?"

A pink blush rushed to Jim's face. "She will," he said, rubbing aggressively at his jaw.

"Could you please, uh, not tell anyone until I break the news?" he said.

Danica nodded. "Sure."

"Thanks." Jim lifted his hand in a half wave, half salute and ambled back inside. Not that any thanks was needed. It was not any of her business, anyway, where Jim moved to.

Danica pressed a lock of her hair back as she thought. She wondered if she should take the same recourse as Jim and leave. No, that was foolish. She liked her life here. She liked the people there, even in their obnoxious moments. She did not want to start over with another batch of people who were likely to be just as obnoxious. Especially not after all the squabbling with the Volturi to allow her to keep her job.

No, she was not leaving. Not because of him. She could survive him. She had survived much worse than him.

Several minutes later, Kelly barreled out the door, tears streaming down her face. Danica retreated behind a car; luckily Kelly did not glance her way as she ran blindly out of the parking lot.

Ryan stepped out, trying vainly to catch up to his sobbing, now-ex girlfriend. He stopped outside the door. He had caught Danica standing behind the car. Danica glared back. Neither of them uttered a word.

Then Kelly's scream tore through the night.

Ryan was used to Kelly's screams, but this seemed worse, more brutal than anything he had heard before. The screams deepened, morphing until howls of agony.

Danica vanished. She no longer was behind the car. Ryan glanced around but he could not see where she had gone.

The screaming continued. _This is serious_, Ryan registered dully. _Kelly is in real trouble_.

He chased after the screams. Somehow he was able to pinpoint their direction, though they must have reverberated around him from every direction. So did a loud crack.

As he ran, he thumbed open his phone and punched in a nine. Once he reached the scene, his fingers hesitated.

He found Kelly only a block and a half away. She writhed on the ground, next to a shattered . . . man. This humanlike creature's head was severed from its neck, its face cracked like a porcelain jar. Instead of blood edging the wound, there was white dust. The corpse's red eyes gleamed under the streetlight.

Danica knealt down by Kelly, pinning her still and muting her screams of pain. She pulled down the strap of Kelly's dress, revealing a small wound at the base of the neck.

"She's been bitten," Danica said to Ryan.

"What happened?" He was waiting for a real answer, one that would make sense of the shattered man and the bite. Some part of him realized this situation was beyond his comprehension, because he clarified, "What's wrong with her?"

"It's the venom from the bite."

Ryan searched for something sharp. To remove venom, he figured, Danica would need a knife to cut Kelly's veins. Like she was performing an emergency tracheotomy. He cursed his decision to leave his pocket knife at home.

Danica said, "Promise you won't freak out."

Her eyes darkened. She leaned over Kelly, placed her mouth over the wound, and drank.


	21. Chapter 21

Somehow Ryan withheld the scream that threatened to burst out of his chest. He sensibly called 911 while Danica took the shattered corpse away. At least Kelly's screams had subsided. That gave him incentive not to scream, lest he get her started again.

Danica had not returned when the paramedics arrived. He explained he had heard Kelly screaming and found her lying on the ground. He did not even try to explain Danica or the body.

Danica burned the body and remained out of sight of the paramedics, although she did come close enough to overhear the hospital directions. She saw Ryan climb into the ambulance with Kelly, and then ran to meet him at the hospital.

First she stopped at her car to put in contacts to cover her now red eyes.

She arrived at the waiting room. Ryan was in a delayed shock; he did not seem to notice her entrance at first. When his eyes landed on her, he jumped.

"Is Kelly okay?"

"What was that?" Ryan returned sharply.

"A vampire," Danica said, purposefully keeping her voice calm. The cameras had not followed them, or at least they had not reached the hospital yet.

Ryan blinked. "What . . ." he breathed in and out, "How did you know?"

"I'm a vampire." Danica remembered to add, "But I don't drink human blood."

"Then what were you doing to Kelly?"

"The vampire - the other one - bit her and his venom was in her system. That was what was causing her pain. I had to remove the venom or she would turn."

"Turn into what?"

"Into a vampire."

Concern filled Ryan's face. "Is Kelly going to become a vampire?"

"No. I removed the venom. Other than a small scar on her neck, she'll be back to normal."

Danica suspected the conversation would circle around like this for the next few hours. She warned Ryan, "Kelly's family will be here soon."

A pause as Ryan absorbed this overfill of information. _Kelly was attacked by a vampire. Danica was a vampire. Kelly's family would be here soon_. Danica sat down. She was stone still, not given to fidgets.

"How did it happen?" he asked.

"I guess the vamp nabbed her when she was -"

Ryan repeated, "How did it happen to you?"

Danica's hand moved up, tracing her finger along the side of her neck. To the scar that developed when she turned.

"It's a long story," she warned.

"Please," Ryan said. He needed to make sense of this, and the only way he can is if he learned as much about this chain of events as possible.

So she told him.

"I lived with my family in Sarajevo, Bosnia. My parents and my brother and my sister and I were like any normal family. At fifteen I was the middle sibling. Anja was sixteen and Milo was thirteen. Both my father and my mother were teachers.

"I was asleep when it happened. One early morning, a bomb exploded in our building. I remember the roar of fire, Anja screaming, and then everything went black.

"When I came to, I was on the ground, pinned under my bedframe. It took a long time to get out from under it, but eventually I freed myself. I saw my home was reduced to debris and my family's body parts lying among the broken walls and furniture. Everything I had known in my life was gone.

"The next couple of years I did nothing but survive. I took shelter in an abandoned apartment of a neighbor and left only to get food and water. I passed the time by reading my neighbor's books, and in the winter I burned the books I had already read. I did not think about my family or my future or anything, just about what I needed to survive to the next day.

"One afternoon I was carrying groceries home when I was accosted by a band of soldiers. A couple of them used to go to school with me, but they surrounded me with their guns and called me 'pig girl.'

"I managed to escape. I heard guns firing behind me but I kept running until I passed out. The next thing I knew, I had woken up in a hospital. The Greenpeace volunteers had found me by the city's border. The doctor at the hospital was a volunteer. He was pale with caramel colored eyes. He was very kind when he explained that I had been shot and I had only hours to live.

"The doctor was a vampire. He had a family, a wife and adopted children who were vegetarians - which is what we call vampires that don't drink human blood. His adopted children were like me, people he saved from the brink of death. After he saved me, he brought me back to America in a private plane. I moved in with some friends of his, a coven of three sisters in Alaska. They taught me how to hunt and how to control my cravings. I stayed with them for ten years until I felt secure enough to move out on my own."

By the time she finished the story, Kelly's family arrived. Laura dashed in and embraced Danica.

"Is Kelly all right?" she asked tearfully.

"Yes. She'll be fine," Danica said confidently. Ryan echoed her greetings to the Kapoors. Kelly's parents stared down disapprovingly at him, but did not voice any of their accusations.

From what the police deduced, a mugger had encountered Kelly. She had panicked and tried to fight him and she had fallen onto the pavement. The mugger had run off by the time Ryan had reached her and he called 911. The only way Ryan could explain Danica's involvement was that he had called her.

After the police took their statements and the doctor's pronounced Kelly's good health, Ryan left. Throughout this ordeal, he did not once look towards Danica.


	22. Chapter 22

Danica waited until the next morning to visit Kelly; she had not wanted to intrude on family time.

Kelly looked much better, though she lamented, "My hair must look frightful."

"It's all right," Danica assured her. "Are you in any pain?"

"Not really. I scraped my elbow. That'll take a long time to heal and it'll probably turn yellow and gross."

"I'm glad it wasn't worse."

"You'd think I had a lobotomy the way my parents are going on about it," Kelly whined. "Now I'll never be allowed out. If Ryan wants to see me, I'll have to grow my hair long like Rapunzel and let him climb up to my room."

"Oh." Apparently Kelly had forgotten that Ryan had dumped her. Or they had gotten back together since then. Danica wanted to ask but that was impossible with the knot formed in her throat.

"But can you believe the way Ryan swooped in to my rescue?" Kelly gushed. "He really acted fast. I might have died if it weren't for him. This is so like Spiderman, isn't it?"

Danica let Kelly chat on until the nurse ushered her out. Once she reached the parking lot, she pulled out her phone and dialed. She wanted to ask Ryan if they had gotten back together.

_It was a neurological issue, and, besides, Ryan got her involved in this break-up in the first place. _

The phone rang and rang, until the voicemail picked up. By then Danica lost her steam. She hung up without leaving a message. If Ryan traced it to her, he should figure out why she called.

She closed her phone. Then she opened it back up and dialed another number.

"Hello, Tanya? I'm coming to the wedding. I'll see you there."

The rented car wound through the curved roads of Washington State.

Danica was armed with presents and peace offerings. She suspected some of them would not be accepted, but she had to try.

Before she was sent to the Denalis, she had stayed with the Cullens, and she had not left them in good terms. She had been miserable. She could not accept them as her family; she had a family and they were slaughtered in a stupid war. Replacing them with another family seemed like a further injustice to their unnecessary deaths.

And then there was that clash with Edward.

` _"What is going on?" Carlisle had asked, once he had Edward and Danica in his office._

_ Danica could not answer. It was Edward who spoke from her mind._

_ "She thinks you brought her here as my mate."_

_ "Stop it!" Danica had shouted before Edward could reveal any more. "You stay out of my head! You have no right to my thoughts!"_

_ "Danica, it's okay." Carlisle's address to her was more sympathetic than angry. He faced Edward. "Edward, you can go to the others. Danica and I need to talk alone."_

_ Edward stood and left the room. Danica had scowled. Like he wouldn't find out thirty seconds later what we talked about, she thought in Serbo-Croat. Her native tongue was no longer much a refuge; Edward had picked up on the language too quickly. _

_ "Danica," Carlisle started. "You know you_ _do not have to have a mate to be in this family."_

_ "No, I don't know that." Danica cooled her temper. "I'm sorry, I realize I owe you everything, but I can't do this. Your family is nice, but I've lived on my own for the past three years. I can handle being on my own."_

_ "I respect your feelings," Carlisle said, "but you are still a newborn, and I don't think you should underestimate your ability to control your thirst. All vampires struggle with it. Are you prepared to deal with the consequences if you slip up?"_

No_, her mind screamed. But she was equally determined not to remain here. "If I have to."_

_ Carlisle studied her face. _

_ "There is another option," he explained. "In Alaska, there is another vegetarian coven. The Denalis are made up of three sisters. Perhaps I could ask if they would be willing to accept you until you can manage your cravings. Would that work for you?"_

_ Danica thought it sounded perfect. No family. No foster parents. No possible life mates. _

_ "Yes. Please. I can't stay here."_

She drove through the main street. She was curious about if she could spot Bella. Surely a girl who could block Jane's pain waves would look distinct.

She passed through the country to the prairie-style house that was identical to the one the Cullens lived in ten years ago, in northern California. She remembered staring at it awe when it was first her new home. She had been thinking the large windows were too impractical, that snipers could smash through the panes in seconds flat.

It had not been until after she had come here that she realized how much the war had affected her. Everything the Cullens had done seemed at odds with her experiences. She had screamed at Alice for being wasteful with her discarded clothes, had screamed at Emmett and Jasper for their sparring, had screamed at Edward for his idiotic philosophy that humans had souls and vampires did not. If he had seen some of the things those "souled" humans did in Sarajevo, he would realize that humans were no more civilized than animals or demons or whatever he thought vampires were.

Danica stepped out her car, clutching at the shopping bags of peace offerings. She even bought Bella something: a leather-bound book of M. R. James stories. She heard that Bella liked old literature more than clothes.

She heard the cheerful din from inside the house. A human scent wafted out with the family's. The chatter quieted as she approached the door. Before she knocked, Esme opened the door.

"Tanya invited me to the wedding," Danica explained.

"Danica," Esme said. She hesitated before hugging, mostly to gauge Danica's reaction. When Danica did not shy away, Esme wrapped her arms around her. "This is such a surprise. Let's get inside. Bella's here. I'm sure you will get along well with her."

Brave words, considering Danica had not been able to get along with anyone else here. But that was a long time ago.

Emmett, Jasper, and Alice had emerged from the kitchen. "Danica," Alice said.

"Hi," Danica said.

Emmett stormed over and lifted Danica onto his shoulder. "Danica spiral!" he shouted.

"Emmett, stop that!" Esme reprimanded. When Emmett loosened his grip on her, Danica twisted out and threw Emmett to the ground.

"What is that?" Emmett asked, unfazed by the throw. "Tanya taught me." In reconciliation, Danica held out her hand and helped him up.

"So you are sparring?" Jasper asked in stiff confusion.

Danica nodded and made her first apology. "I am sorry for my behavior in the past."

"I knew we'd win her over eventually." Emmett cuffed her arm.

"And you went shopping," Alice exclaimed, tearing into the presents. She held up a blouse. "This is just as lovely as in my vision."

She then leaned closer to Danica. "I have to talk to you later."

"Okay." Danica reminded herself that while Alice loved new clothes, she would not necessarily be suckered into forgiveness with a few garments.

"Come on, come on. Esme's working on the hors d'oevres. She could use a second opinion," Alice bounced after Jasper to the kitchen.

"The first opinion being Bella's," Emmett quipped. "You can amaze her with your ability to eat any human food."

Rosalie stood at the counter, her face deliberately turned away from Danica as she stirred the tomato sauce. Edward was standing behind a short brunette human, looking over her shoulder at the cookbook. Simultaneously they looked up at her entrance.

"Danica," Edward greeted.

"Hi. Congratulations on your wedding," Danica said.

"Bella, this is Danica, my prodigal foster sister," Edward said. Danica tried not to wince at the word "sister," even if Edward diluted it with "foster." "Danica, this is my bride Bella."

"Nice to meet you." Bella said. She offered her hand and Danica shook it.

"Um, I brought some presents for the wedding," Danica said, extracting the bag with the book from the rest of the pile. "I didn't wrap it."

"Of course she didn't," Rosalie carped. "Wrapping paper and gifts are such a waste."

Bella exchanged a sympathetic glance with Danica. Danica was sure Bella had not been warmly received by Rosalie either.

"Thank you," Bella said, accepting the gift. "I can't wait to look through it."

"We have to wait?" Emmett said, horrified. He had already dug out the video games for himself and Jasper.

"No." Danica assured him. "You can open them now."

Danica helped Esme prepare a few dips and some finger foods. She suggested they add a healthy dessert tray and volunteered to make some sugar-free tarts like Phyllis had made for her boyfriend Bob Vance's birthday.

Edward, Bella, Alice and Danica finally joined Emmett and Jasper in the living room, where the boys were well into one of the new videogames.

"Is Carlisle going to be home soon?" Danica asked.

"He's working a little later, to make up for the time off during the wedding," Alice answered. "I can't believe you're working with Creed Bratton. Jasper and I saw the Grass Roots in concert. Remember that Jasper?"

Jasper nodded curtly.

"So what's Creed like?"

"He steals stuff," Danica said. "He stole a ten dollar bill from my purse."

"So you went to those concerts. Did you go to Woodstock?" Bella asked.

"Yeah. The music was amazing, but my dress was absolutely ruined."

"We all were," Edward answered. "At Woodstock. Except Carlisle and Esme, because they were responsible adults. And Danica: it was before her time."

"Oh," Bella asked Danica, "When did you turn?"

"1995." To her relief, Bella stopped her inquiry at "when"; she did not ask "how."

They heard a car pull up in the garage. "It's Carlisle," Edward announced, unnecessarily.


	23. Chapter 23

Carlisle entered the house. He put away his raincoat and headed for the family room where his wife and children usually congregated in the evenings.

Alice was the first one to greet him. "Carlisle," she exclaimed, jumping up from her lounge on the floor and blitzing over to him. On the way she leapt over Jasper and Emmett, who out of politeness paused their game to voice their hellos.

"Guess who's here," his exuberant daughter sang out.

Carlisle peered into the room and spotted Danica who stood up and crossed over towards him, stopping before she cut the boys' view of the TV screen.

"Hello, Danica," Carlisle said, giving her a welcoming smile.

"Hello." Danica paused, her unease apparent. "Tanya forwarded an invitation to Edward's and Bella's wedding. I hope it is okay."

"You are always welcome here," Carlisle told her.

Danica smiled back, but she did not fully relax. She did not deserve this kind treatment. By all rights, they should all give her the cold shoulder like Rosalie. As a daughter and sister, she had caused them nothing but trouble. Another wave of guilt washed over her; she felt like she had taken advantage of this loving and generous family.

Bella excused herself. "Charlie is expecting me at home. It was nice meeting you, Danica."

"I'll see you tomorrow," Danica returned, as Edward led Bella out, his arm linked with hers. The others chorused their goodbyes, then Emmett and Jasper returned to the videogame and Alice retreated to the kitchen.

"Is it okay if I talk to you?" Danica asked Carlisle, her request coming out in a timid whisper.

Carlisle assented, recognizing the troubled undercurrent of the wayward girl's behavior. "Shall we go into my office?"

The office had changed some since she had last sat in it, mostly in minor decorative details. A laptop was folded shut upon his desk. Ten years ago, Carlisle had not had even had a computer.

As Danica had not started to talk, Carlisle opened up the conversation. "How is your job in Pennsylvania."

"It's crazy," Danica said. "But I like it. I have some friends . . ."

She paused, and then segued into a matter that had nagged at her throughout her journey. "There was some trouble."

Carlisle listened as she told him about the vampire that attacked Kelly, but with one major omission; she left out Ryan's involvement.

Once she finished, Carlisle encouraged her, "It sounds that you handled the situation admirably."

"The Volturi might say different."

"That may be true. You had a difficult decision to make, and you chose to save a human life at the risk of exposing yourself."

Danica hugged her arms to her body, fending off a chill she did not really feel.

"She doesn't remember," Danica said. "I saw her the next day and she doesn't recall anything of that night except what the police told her: that she was mugged."

Carlisle rounded the desk, stooped so he did not tower intimidatingly over her. "Does this worry you?" he asked.

"Some," she admitted. "It can't be healthy to block all of that out."

"Perhaps," the doctor opined. "Though I cannot say for sure without examining your friend myself, I don't think the lapse of memory alone portends any risk to her. The pain from the venom had put her in a partially delirious state, so she may not have even taken in many of the events that occurred after she was bitten. Perhaps all she has to remember is the initial attack, which would seem very much like a mugging to her."

"I hope so," Danica murmured. "I hope that's all there was to it."

Carlisle laid his hand over hers. "I know it cannot be easy to come back here, but I'm glad you did. And I'm glad you trusted me enough to confide in me. I'm proud of you."

Not knowing what else to say, Danica thanked him. "Your family has been very kind."

"Psst"

Danica ambled through the hall when she heard Alice's sharp whistle. She recalled that Alice intended to discuss something with her.

Danica peeked into Alice's room. Alice was alone. She sat on the bed, mending a skirt. Other garments were strewn throughout the room. A white dress and veil, covered in plastic, hung from the closet door. Bella's wedding dress, Danica guessed.

She looked around for an empty space to sit. "It looks good," she commented on the skirt.

"It does, doesn't it?" Alice agreed, as she slicked another thread and pushed it through the needle. "Just to let you know, all my old clothes go to charities now, thanks to you."

"Oh." Danica offered. "I'm sorry I was so pushy."

"It's no problem. Besides, the clothes were too pretty to toss away. This way someone else gets to enjoy them."

Alice laid down the skirt and snipped the thread.

"Listen," she said. "I have to confess. I lied."

"About what?"

"About you and Edward. You were never destined for each other."

Danica looked down. "No. I guess not."

She should have guessed that. Looking back, she realized most of the pressure for her to become Edward's mate came from Alice. Not as a condition of her living with the Cullens, but as Alice's attempts at matchmaking.

"It was just my interference. I mean, just because I had not seen you together didn't mean it couldn't happen. After all, you had not decided on it then. Edward has been alone for so long, and there was no Bella in sight yet. I thought it might work; you two had so much in common."

They did have that. Before Danica's paranoia grew into monstrous proportions, she and Edward often sat together in the library, discussing books and music and current events. Alice and Emmett did not share these interests, and Rosalie and Jasper avoided her. Edward had seemed like the perfect older brother, offering guidance and protection and friendship.

The hints seemed innocent enough at first, like they were reading more into those chats than was there. The hints grew in number and intensity, until they appeared to Danica's fragile psyche like they were threats. She was the new girl. Carlisle had saved her when she could offer nothing in return. Why would anyone - vampire or human - do that for a strange foreigner? Then it turns out there is one unattached male in a family full of pairs and mates.

Truthfully, Danica said, "Alice, your apology isn't necessary. I'm the one that overreacted"

"I had seen that," Alice revealed. "That you would resist. But once you had adjusted to your life here, you would have accepted it. You and Edward would have learned to love each other. What I hadn't known is that you would insist on leaving.

"But Danica, even if you hadn't, it could have been a disaster. You and Edward would love each other but it would not be the same as what he has with Bella. What if you had gotten together and then Edward met Bella? He would have been torn between his love for her and his commitment to you."

"None of that happened," Danica reassured her. "So you don't need to worry about what might have happened." Who better than Danica, an expert on dwelling what might have been, to dispense that advice? "And everything worked out for the best."

Alice bounced off the bed and hugged Danica. "I'm so glad we can be sisters again. You'll visit often, right?"

"Yes," Danica agreed. "I'll visit often."


	24. Chapter 24

Danica went hunting with Jasper and Emmett. She could hardly believe how quickly she reconciled with most of her foster family - and she had not even been here twenty-four hours. Rosalie and Jasper still acted chilly to her, but they had never been that fond of her in the first place. Jasper was uncomfortable around her because she did not struggle with thirst as much as a newborn should - her years in the war had instilled a fanatic distaste for doing violence to humans. As for Rosalie, Danica doubted Rosalie would ever see her as anything else but an opportunist who nearly split the family apart.

After savoring a meal of deer blood, Danica ventured back to the house to find that Edward had returned from Bella's house. He sat in the driver's seat and gazed up at the stars through the windshield. No doubt he was daydreaming about Bella, counting the minutes until he could see her again.

She rapped on the window. Edward glanced over, then he reached over and released the lock on the passenger door. Danica hesitated, but she climbed in beside him, grateful that the gearshift provided a barrier between them.

"I'm sorry I went crazy on you," she spoke, before he had the chance to read her mind. As if there was anything left that he did not already know.

"I understand," he drawled. "Did Alice talk to you?"

"Yes." _Matchmaking_, she thought wryly. And it almost took. She remembered that she had been willing to give him a chance. Once she had learned of the idea, she had fought against it. But in the end, she would have let him claim her. Because this family had saved her and she owed them.

In the end, it was Edward who rejected her.

"You're remembering it wrong," Edward informed her.

Didn't she wish? That humiliating moment was branded in her brain forever. "I don't think so."

"You told yourself you didn't want the relationship," Edward said.

"I would have though."

"Not because you wanted it. You were afraid. You were afraid of what we would do to you if you refused. Every time I came near you, you thought of what those soldiers did to you. You thought I would treat you the same way."

Danica endured his reference. She had never spoken of those days with anyone. That Edward knew of them was one of the major reasons why she remained uneasy around him.

"You relented to Alice's match because you wanted to survive," Edward echoed the mantra that Danica had clung to the last thirteen years. "That's how you came to see me, as someone to survive. I could never accept a relationship like that."

Danica heard an edge of hurt. She had been unfair to Edward; he had done nothing to deserve that brutal impression.

"I'm sorry," she repeated. "I didn't know."

"It might have worked," Edward mumbled. "It wasn't your fault it didn't. The memories you had were too recent. You had not had an opportunity to process them."

Danica said lightly, "And you have Bella. I would never be able to tolerate half of the devotion you give her."

"She's very accepting," Edward sighed. "She's an angel to put up with me."

Danica stifled a groan. She had forgotten how obnoxious his flowery speech could be. Alice had been right; even in the best of circumstances, she and Edward would have never suited.

"Ryan seems very accepting as well," Edward added. "He took the news very well."

"He was in shock." _Not that it's any of your business,_ Danica thought, then tossed the barb his way.

"He hasn't told anyone."

"Only because he would sound like a lunatic if he tried."

Edward propped his arm on the steering wheel. "I take it you don't want to discuss Ryan."

Danica shook her head. "No. Sorry."

"Not a problem." The driver's side door kicked open. "I just thought I'd offer, as you had not brought him up with Carlisle. But you'll figure it out."

"Thanks." Edward exited the car. She called to him. "Edward?"

"Yes." He lowered his head so he could meet her eyes.

"You can tell Bella everything."

"Everything?" he echoed.

"Everything you know. I'm not going to insist you keep secrets from your wife on my account. The war, Ryan . . . whatever comes up. Just please don't spread it any farther."

Edward's caramel eyes lit up.

"That is generous of you." That was all he needed to say, because he was the only one who knew what her secrets cost her.


	25. Chapter 25

A lavender dawn poked through the living room windows. Through this light, Danica browsed the DVD collection. Ten years ago it was a video collection, and some videos remained.

A knock sounded at the door.

The rest of the household was upstairs. The pairs were together in their rooms and Edward was playing the piano to soothe his nerves for the coming wedding day. Danica did not yet feel secure enough to answer the door for the Cullens, so she paused, waffling between assuming the privilege or interrupting a more legitimate member of the household. Then she trotted over and hauled open the door.

"Danica," Tanya greeted. Like Esme and Alice, Tanya engulfed Danica in a hug. "It's great to see you again."

"You too," Danica said. The rising sun was casting a glint on Tanya's bare shoulders, so Danica invited her in.

The piano playing ceased as Edward met them at the door.

"Hello, Tanya."

"Hi, Edward. So tomorrow's the big day? Where's Bella?"

"She's at her father's. But she'll be here today. Alice wants to give her one last fitting and then we host the rehearsal dinner."

"I can't wait to meet her," Tanya said. She performed an elegant bend as she lowered her traveling case to the floor. "And where is the dress Alice was bragging about?"

"In Alice's room at the moment," Danica told her. "But I would wait before sneaking in there."

"How are Kate and Irina?" Edward asked, his eyes cast down to polished wood floor.

Tanya's smile tilted. "A little better. Kate remained behind to look after Irina."

Esme called from upstairs. "Is someone here?"

"It's Tanya," Edward answered.

Seconds later, Esme dashed downstairs. "I am so sorry for my late welcome," she said. "How are your sisters?"

"I had only just arrived." Tanya repeated, "Kate is staying home with Irina."

"If there is anything we can do," Esme offered.

Tanya changed the subject. "I brought something for us to watch." She opened the side pocket on her traveling case and pulled out a DVD. "Ta-da!"

"Is that my show?" Danica asked.

"It's the last season," Tanya explained. "So you're not in it. But all your coworkers are. So we can meet them."

"I don't know. I signed a contract . . ."

"But it doesn't pertain to the episodes before you were hired. I checked online. Don't you want to know what was going on before?"

"I guess."

"I'm going to get Bella," Edward instructed. "Don't start it yet."

Bella and Tanya were only allowed the briefest introductions, because the Cullens were anxious to watch the DVD.

They settled down in the family room. Rosalie refused to watch, but Alice persuaded Jasper to join them, and he seemed curious about what Danica's workday was like.

Tanya gave a brief biography of the key players: Michael, Dwight, Jim, and Pam. Then Ryan came on the screen, on his first day of his temp job. Tanya glossed over the significance of his appearance, but the others seemed to catch on.

She did emphasize Kelly's appearance. "She's the girl that Danica saved."

"You saved a human?" Jasper asked. His face remained bland, neither approving nor disapproving.

"Yes," Danica said. "But that's not in the show."

"So that's Ryan," Edward whispered. He had Bella lying against him, her head lolling on his shoulder. On screen, Pam laid her head on Jim's shoulder and closed her eyes.

"They belong together," Alice said.

"She's engaged," Tanya said, having taken over as the tour guide to Danica's show.

"She'll break it off. She'll marry Jim. They'll be happy."

Danica was not so sure. Jim had left for Stamford. She hesitated to bring that up.

They watched all six episodes. Danica had discovered that Michael's behavior was a slow improvement over some of the schemes he pulled in the first season. She was glad she had not been there for the diversity training. She almost burst into cheer when Kelly slapped him.

"In the next season," Tanya summarized. "Roy sets a date for his wedding with Pam, Dwight and Angela are sleeping together, Michael hooks up with Jan, and Ryan starts a fire by trying to heat a burrito in the microwave. And of course, our lovely Danica Simovic is hired."

Emmett applauded.

Danica and Tanya accompanied Bella on her fitting. Alice had her stand still as she inspected every inch of the dress. Every time Bella fidgeted, Alice growled at her to hold her pose.

A phone rang, aggravating Alice further. Danica checked her phone. "It's me. Sorry. Continue." She ducked into the hallway to answer.

"Where are you?"

"Who is this?" Danica asked.

"Alec. Where are you?"

"In Forks. I didn't know the Volturi used phones."

"You're in Forks?"

"Yes."

"What are you doing there?"

"Edward's marrying Bella." Recalling what Tanya had told her about their misadventure with the Volturi, she asked, "You met Bella, didn't you?"

"Twice. Has she changed yet?"

"After the wedding, I'm told." Danica rolled her eyes. "So what was so urgent you went through such lengths to get in touch with me?"

"Jane and I wanted to make sure you hadn't taken off."

"Didn't your minion inform you that I filled out a vacation form at work and I planned on coming back?"

"You might have done that just to throw us off the trail. Are you really in Forks?"

"Yes. I'll prove it." She poked her head back in the room. "Alice, shouldn't that hem be shorter?"

"No. It's not age appropriate for anyone over the age of seven," Alice said. "Please tell me you haven't forgotten all the fashion tips I gave you, Danica. I shall give you a tutorial after the wedding."

"Satisfied?" Danica uttered in the phone.

If Alec was insulted, he did not reveal it. "When can we expect you to return?" he asked.

"Tuesday. After the wedding I'm stopping at Denali to see Kate and Irina, and then back to Scranton."

"Very well. We'll see you Tuesday."

He hung up before Danica could answer.


	26. Chapter 26

The weekend of the wedding kept Danica so busy, she had no time to dwell on her worries of Kelly and Ryan.

The wedding day came and went in a chaotic flurry. The ceremony was beautiful. Bella treaded down the aisle; Danica could see the bride was nervous, until her eyes locked with Edward's. At the pulpit Bella and Edward gazed at each other, barely conscious of the rites performed for them. When the priest declared them husband and wife, their heated kissed seemed to warm the entire chapel.

At the reception, Danica and Tanya joined the single women in catching the bridal bouquet. Her back turned to the guests, Bella flung the bouquet. She badly misjudged her aim; it bounced off the wall and crashed into one of Esme's garden sculptures.

"I guess that means the sculpture is the next to get married," Emmett joked, earning a chilly look from Rosalie.

Another minor disaster occurred when Bella's wolf friends came. According to Tanya, one of them, Jake, was also in love with Bella, and he had not taken her rejection that well. While Jake danced with Bella, Danica tossed a friendly hello towards Jake's friends, and they just stared back at her as if she had grown antenna. Tanya riveted her gaze away from the wolves the whole time they were at the wedding, which was not very long because Jake lost control of his emotions. Luckily his friends got him out on time.

At long last, Edward and Bella departed for their honeymoon and most of the guests left as well. Danica and Tanya started their journey for Alaska soon after. She bid her foster family goodbye, promising to keep in touch with them.

On the way, Tanya explained the situation with Irina. Laurent had allied himself with Victoria and had gone back to Forks to kill Bella. The wolves had stopped him and had ripped him to pieces. Irina had known nothing about the plot until after she found out he was dead. Then Victoria had created an army of newborns to slay Bella and the Cullens. The Cullens were able to defeat them, thanks to the alliance with the wolves.

Her family could have died and Danica knew nothing about it.

Kate greeted them warmly and shared her happiness that Danica had reconciled with the Cullens. But Danica was shocked at the change in Irina. The youngest and smallest of the Denali sisters had shrunk to a twig. Her skin lost its luster, and her hair hung limply over her drawn face. Danica was sure Irina was refusing to eat. Irina did not speak during Danica's stay; she only uttered grunts.

Tanya and Kate left to hunt (and to bring back food to bid Irina to eat). Danica sat next to Irina. She thought about giving Irina a hug but she was afraid to touch her. So she sat on Irina's bed and leveled her eyes at the sick girl.

"If you don't stop this, you're going to die," she said. "Maybe you think you want that, but you don't. Your dying won't help you. You won't be with Laurent. You can't bring him back this way. You'll only bring misery to yourself and your sisters."

Irina stared back stonily. Danica had evoked no reaction.

"It's unfair, I know. And it seems unfair that you're expected to live on without Laurent. But, Irina, you have to. You have to survive. It's your only option."

Irina's face had not changed.


	27. Chapter 27

Monday night, Danica flew back to Philadelphia, and then took the train to Scranton. When she was with the Cullens and the Denalis, her dilemma had seemed so far away. Once the plane touched down in Pennsylvania, it loomed to a monolithic stature.

She dreaded Tuesday morning.

Tuesday arrived cheerily. The weather website had proclaimed a sunny day with pleasant temperatures, but Danica read the forecast as an omen for the barriers to come. She sat in the emergency stairwell before work, a funeral march tapping away in her mind.

Her watch alarm bleeped, signaling time for her to arrive at the office.

Danica trudged upstairs and entered the main office. Most of the employees were already at their desks, organizing their work. Ryan, among them, sat at Jim's desk, front and center of Danica's view from the entrance.

Ryan glanced up. "Danica, hey. How was the wedding?"

"Good." Danica stared back. Surely he should not be so nonchalant. "What are you doing?" she blurted out.

"Jim transferred to Stamford," Ryan said. "And I got his job."

"So you're a salesman," Danica commented, temporarily sidetracked.

"Yeah. I don't have any clients yet, so I'm doing cold calls. It's not that interesting, but it's a small step up the corporate ladder." Ryan jumped from his table and lead Danica to his desk, where he showed off his phone apparatuses. "Not bad, huh?"

"Great," she echoed.

"I'm glad you're back," he said. Danica's breath caught. Then he continued, "Kelly's been gabbing my ear off of when you'd be back. You know how she is with weddings, even if she doesn't know the people."

"Sure." Danica said, cautiously, "So you two have . . . reconciled?"

"You mean, after she got mugged?" Ryan asked, his brows crossed in confusion. "I hope the police find that guy. But Kelly's recovered okay."

He was talking too fast. Danica struggled to keep up.

"Ryan . . ." The questions stuck in her throat. _What was going on? Was it all her imagination that he saw . . .? That he knew . . .? _Her eyes roved the office, wondering what else had changed in this universe, because it clearly was not the universe she had left the week before.

"Ryan," she repeated. "What happened when you saw Kelly on the ground?"

Ryan shook his head. After a pause, he answered, "I'm not sure. It was all a blur. But I managed to call 911 and I called you from the warehouse. A lot was going on at once. I couldn't keep track."

"You called me from the warehouse?" That was what Ryan had told the others, but either he had persuaded himself of a different chain of events . . .

. . . like Kelly persuaded herself that she and Ryan were still together . . .

"Oh my god," Danica stood up, Ryan's chair ricocheting off the back of her legs.

Ryan raised a hand to her shoulder, as if to catch her from fainting. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." Danica lowered her head, to conceal her blazing eyes. "Excuse me." She stepped around him and stalked out the office and back down the emergency stairwell.

She was going to kill Alec. She was going to dismember him. She was going to rip that scheming head off his body and burn him.

Alec materialized on the steps, ramming against her. "Going somewhere?" he asked, before she could burst out into the sunlit alley.

"You did something, didn't you?" Danica accused him. "Ryan can't remember. Neither can Kelly. You did something to their memories! You made them forget!"

Danica thrust out her hands and shoved Alec into the wall. The building rocked. Bits of plaster crumbled down on them.

"What did you do to them?" she demanded. "If you did something to their brains, I will rip your spine out."

"I'll explain when you calm down."

Danica breathed in. Slowly, her muscles loosened.

Alec brushed the plaster dust from his clothes. He perched on the stairs and signaled for Danica to do likewise.

"Gita has a talent for erasing memories from people's minds." He cut off Danica's rising protest. "It doesn't harm them, and she selected only to remove the events that led up to the attack on Kelly."

"But did you have to go about it this way?"

"It was either that or putting all three of you to death. You for breaking the law and Ryan and Kelly for their knowledge of our state." Alec leaned towards her. "I granted you a reprieve. The Volturi allowed it because your human friends do not have any memory of your transgression. For the Volturi, this was as close to a miracle as one could get. You and your friends are allowed to live, and you should be pledging your gratitude instead of abusing me in this way."

A tremble overtook Danica. Though she realized the cost of her revelation, she could not bring herself to thank Alec. Because he imposed the erasure. He erased the moment that Danica had shared her real self with Ryan. That one honest moment with Ryan - gone.

The door at the top of the stairs squeaked open.

"Danica," Ryan called. He descended down enough to see Alec and Danica's menacing face-off. "Are you okay?" he interrupted dumbly.

"Yes," Danica murmured.

Ryan shuffled to the exit, but Danica remained rooted to the spot at the bottom of the stairs. When she made no move to follow him, Ryan turned back. He came down the stairs.

"Is this your cousin?" he asked, as it was the only minimally intelligent thing he could think to say.

"Yes," Danica issued a half-hearted introduction. "Ryan, Alec. Alec, Ryan."

Alec gripped Ryan's hand, holding back a hair from crushing Ryan's fingers. Ryan hissed at the tight grip.

"Sorry about pulling Danica away," Alec said smoothly. "But we missed her coming in from the airport, and her uncle wanted me to ensure she got in all right."

"Okay." Ryan lost the thread on the reason for the visit. If he was checking up on Danica, why was he in the emergency stairwell instead of at the security desk?

"I'm going back to the office," Danica said. She avoided Ryan's eye, which provoked more suspicion.

"See you tonight," Alec said. He remained at his vigil on the stairs. It was Danica who turned and stomped up the steps. Ryan hurried after her. He made one last glance. Alec was no longer there; apparently he melted back into the shadows.


	28. Chapter 28

**Michael walks into the breakroom, coughing and sniffling. "I've got a hot date with Carol tonight, and wouldn't you know, I get this summer cold," he explains, his voice flat from his stuffed nose. **

** He opens the refrigerator, coughing over all the containers of food and drink. "Hey," he says. He pulls out a bottle. "Danica's cranberry water," he points out, as he wrenches the bottle cap off. "Really healthy stuff."**

** He braves a gulp, then jerks as the "cranberry water" hits his tongue. "Wow. This tastes awful." **

** He huffs a breath, pinches his nose shut, and drinks down the rest of the liquid, shuddering and grimacing the whole time. Once the last drop has disappeared down his throat, he lowers the bottle. **

** He shudders one last time, but he is pleased with himself: as he philosophizes to the camera, "If it tastes that bad, it really must work."**

Coming up:

Fogbound


End file.
